( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Translingual

Etymology

First attested in an anonymous comment on 18 November 2012 in a thread about spam filter settings on the Finnish imageboard Ylilauta: "( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 'this thread is leaking from the heavens'". On the same day, the emoticon was posted on several social media websites including 4chan, Reddit and YouTube.

Symbol

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) (English symbol name Lenny Face)

1. A kaomoji-style emoticon, often called Lenny Face, mostly used to suggest mischief, imply sexual innuendo or a second hidden meaning behind a sentence, or pasted over and over to spam online discussions.
   • 2021 October 12, Golshan Sharbatdar Alaei, “The 3 thoughts that cycle through my head every time I see my face when the screen goes dark at the end of a Netflix episode”, in The Strand, volume 64, number 4, Toronto: Victoria University, page 15:

     3. Nahhhh, one more won’t hurt ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) / *continues watching the twentieth consecutive episode of Parks and Rec (plz, you can’t blame me—it started playing by itself)*