Wikipedia

uwu

emoticon representing a face
(Redirected from Owo)

uwu, also used as UwU, is an emoticon showing cuteness. The u letters represent eyes, while the w represents a mouth.[1][2]

A uwu emoticon blushing

Usage

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uwu is used to show cuteness, happiness, or kindness.[3][4] Overuse of the emoticon can also have a effect of annoying its receiver.[5] The emoticon has been popular in the furry fandom.[3]

There's a more surprised variant, OwO (also connected with the furry fandom and the response, "what's this?")[3] that may mean cuteness, as well as curiosity and confusion.[6]

History

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uwu is known to exist back as far back as 2005, in an anime fan fiction. The origin of the word is not known, with many people believing it to originate in Internet chat rooms. By 2014, the emoticon had spread across the Internet into Tumblr, becoming an Internet subculture.[7]

The word uwu is included in the Royal Spanish Academy's word observatory,[a] defined as an "emoticon used to show happiness or tenderness".[9][10]

Notable uses

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In 2018, the official Twitter account tweeted "uwu" in response to a tweet by an artist on October 22, 2018.[11][12]

In 2020, the U.S. Army Esports Twitter account tweeted "uwu" in reply to a tweet by Discord's Twitter account, which was met by lots of backlash from Twitter users. This event ended in a trend of attempting to get banned from the U.S. Army Esports Discord server as fast as possible, with a common technique being to link to the Wikipedia article, United States war crimes.[13][14]

References

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  1. ↑ "uwu". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  2. ↑ Turner, Amy-Mae (May 26, 2019). "What does 'uwu' mean?". The Daily Dot. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Turner, Amy-Mae (May 26, 2019). "What does 'uwu' mean?". The Daily Dot. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  4. ↑ "uwu". Observatorio de palabras de la Real Academia Española (in Spanish). Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  5. ↑ Srinivasan, Janani Mangai (February 22, 2020). "The Origin and Spread of 'UWU' — The Word That Epitomizes Cuteness". Study Breaks. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  6. ↑ "People Have Discovered This Weird Furry Meme Is An Actual Word And It's Making Them Scream". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
  7. ↑ Srinivasan, Janani Mangai (February 22, 2020). "The Origin and Spread of 'UWU' — The Word That Epitomizes Cuteness". Study Breaks. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  8. ↑ Morales, Manuel (2020-10-23). "La RAE presenta su nueva web, con un 'Observatorio' de palabras que no están en el 'Diccionario'". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  9. ↑ "uwu". Observatorio de palabras de la Real Academia Española (in Spanish). Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  10. ↑ Mouse (October 28, 2020). "La RAE aclaró las dudas boomers sobre 'uwu'". La Tercera. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  11. ↑ @Twitter (October 22, 2018). "uwu" (Tweet). Retrieved June 4, 2021 – via Twitter. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  12. ↑ Thomas, Miles (October 22, 2018). "Why Did the Official Twitter Account Tweet 'uwu'???". Crunchyroll News. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  13. ↑ @USArmyesports (June 30, 2020). "uwu" (Tweet). Retrieved June 4, 2021 – via Twitter.
  14. ↑ Hernandez, Patricia (July 1, 2020). "The US Army is losing the war in Discord". Polygon. Retrieved June 4, 2021.

Notes

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  1. ↑ The word observatory is a website owned by the Royal Spanish Academy featuring words that are not included in the Spanish dictionary and haven't been considered for inclusion, but for which people have wanted to know the meaning of, such as technical terms, neologisms, and foreign words.[8]


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