(
EMOTional 
ICON)  A pictorial expression of feeling in a message rendered as text.  Carnegie Mellon professor Scott Fahlman is credited with creating the first emoticon (the "smiley") using the text characters 
:-) in an online message in 1982.
Pronounced "e-
mo-tih-con," the symbols are stored in the Unicode character set.  Word processing, email and other character-based programs may automatically convert emoticon text into an icon.  See 
emoji, 
emotag, 
Unicode and 
alphanumerish.
 Emoticon   Meaning
  :-)     smiley, happy face
  :-(     frown
  ;-)     wink
  :-D     big smile
  :-O     mouth open in amazement
  :-Q     tongue hanging out in nausea
  :-{)    moustache
  :-{)}   moustache and beard
  8-)     wears glasses
  (-:     left handed or Australian
  :*)     red nosed, suggesting inebriation