PERMANENT SOURCE RECORD
ALL SOURCES ↗BIBLIOGRAPHIC IDENTITYmw-emoticon
SOURCE
RECORD.
One work. Every claim that depends on it. No citation without a consequence you can inspect.
10 PUBLIC LINKS INTO THE GRAPH.
This count excludes duplicate dossier-path citations. Open the claims below to see exactly how the source is used.
historical dictionarymw-emoticon
Emoticon — Definition, Word History, and First Known Use
- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- Merriam-Webster
- DOI
- Not recorded
- SOURCE TYPE
- historical dictionary
- EXTERNAL RECORD
- OPEN ORIGINAL ↗
011
CONTRARIAN TRUTH CLAIMS
RANKED REVEALS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
RANK 72GRADE Asupports
Only one of emoticon and emoji contains emotion.
Emoticon is English emotion plus icon. Emoji is Japanese picture plus character: conceptual neighbors, unrelated formations.
*meue-
*meue- → movēre → ēmovēre → emouvoir / esmovoir → émotion → emotion → emoticon
Word History: emotion + iconDocuments the emoticon compound.
emoticon dossier ↗truth record ↗86UNVEILING
022
SCHOLARLY DISAGREEMENT
DISPUTE POSITIONS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
opensupportsestablished
Was emoticon first used in 1987 or only by 1992?
Merriam-Webster reports first known use in 1987; Etymonline reports the word by January 1992 and quotes an August 1992 explanation.
First Known Use: 1987Publishes the earlier first-use horizon.
resolvedsupportsestablished
Is emoticon another name or etymology for emoji?
No. Emoticon is English emotion plus icon. Emoji is Japanese e “picture” plus moji “character.” They can depict overlapping things without sharing a word formation.
Word History: emotion + iconDocuments the English compound.
032
CANONICAL RELATIONSHIP CLAIMS
EDGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
EDGE 477supportsestablished
emoticon → emotion
Present-Day English → Present-Day English · compound component
- SOUND
- English emoticon truncates and joins emotion with icon; this dossier path follows the emotion component.
- MEANING
- Feeling supplies the expressive content of the keyboard-character image.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster · Unicode Consortium
Word History: emotion + iconDirectly analyzes the English compound.
EDGE 490supportsestablished
emoticon → icon
Present-Day English → Present-Day English · compound component
- SOUND
- English emoticon truncates and combines emotion with icon.
- MEANING
- The representative-image component supplies the visual-sign side of a keyboard expression.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster · Unicode Consortium
Word History: emotion + iconDirectly identifies icon as the second compound component.
041
LEXICAL ATTESTATIONS
WITNESSES REPORTED BY THIS SOURCE
emoticonSOURCE-REPORTED
emoticon
Merriam-Webster source-reported English record
OPEN WITNESS 124 ↗052
COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE
COGNATES, DESCENDANTS, AND RELATIVES
061
GEOGRAPHIC AND TEMPORAL CLAIMS
JOURNEY STAGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
stage 4supports
Networked English communication
Reports the open English horizon and keyboard-character sense.
First Known Use: 1987; definition · global071
NON-GENEALOGICAL CONNECTIONS
HISTORICAL CONTEXT, KEPT SEPARATE
parallel digital symbol formationsupports
TWO VISUAL LANGUAGES, TWO WORD FORMATIONS
Emoticon is English emotion plus icon and originally denotes character sequences. Emoji is borrowed from Japanese e “picture” plus moji “character.” Their uses overlap, but their lexical parents do not.
Unicode Consortium · Merriam-Webster editors · established084
WORD-FAMILY REUSE
DOSSIERS THAT DEPEND ON THIS SOURCE
1 entry-scoped citations map reviewed dossier paths onto the canonical claims above.