this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
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I wouldn't say invention of the emoticon since it already existed since typewriter days in the same exact form and in print and writing for at least hundreds of years. Maybe the first recorded attempt to create a specific purpose for it on a computer system. But that seems pretty flimsy as an "invention". But given the state of the patent system, just about everything I'm technology is an invention these days despite how long it has existed or how obvious it was.
FWIW Abraham Lincoln typed
but it was an accident
This ones not too bad, it's not strictly a smiley though. https://www.codeoftheancients.com/glyphlibrary/glyph/U406
When you look under 'happy' they mostly seem to link to concepts of ripening, harvest, blooming and sweet things.
https://www.codeoftheancients.com/dictionary/egyptian/term/happy
Seems like they also could spell it out sometimes with multiple characters, which sort of surprises me.