Acronyms are all the rage these days. In fact, so much so that tweens and teens can practically have full-blown conversations using acronyms only. The influx of the many symbolic acronyms are due to the popularity amongst texting in today’s day and age. Expression such as Rolling On The Floor Laughing, Be Right Back and Laughing Out Loud, are some of the many acronyms that have made their way into the human language. Who knows…maybe one day we will be having full conversations in capital letters alone, and our written language may become a mish-mash of acronym after acronym.
English teachers are fuming over the loss of the full sentences that used to come out of our mouths, but it’s hard to reverse something that has become such a part of our everyday lives. Those same teachers are fuming over how texting has caused students to drop capital letters and proper grammar in an attempt to shorten our communication with one another. Nowadays babies practically come out of the womb texting acronyms and they enter the school system with little practice of completing a full sentence.
While they are usually viewed as an uplifting way of communicating, acronyms have made their into our world and have even been spotted on gravestones. The last thing you’d ever expect to see is “LOL” on a gravestone, but the image below proves that the now popular expression looks quite odd on a headstone of a 77-year-old man who passed away. At first sight, it appears that the deceased family was finding humor in the man’s death, however; if you dig further into the story, you discover that “LOL,” is actually the nickname for the man’s birth name…Lawrence Wainwright.
Allegedly, the term “LOL,” was coined in the mid-80s, which was long before Lawrence Wainwright passed away. We can guess that his family was not intending to use the term is the humorous way, but instead they simply wanted to remember him by the name that he was so often called.
There is however; a small chance that Lawrence’s family just wanted to find some humor in sending him off and maybe Mr. Wainwright was really a fun guy deep down inside.
Evidently, the nickname “LOL,” is fairly common…
“That was my brother’s nickname too. We didn’t put it on his headstone though.”
“I once had a neighbour named Lawrence who was always known as Lol. Sadly he passed away a couple of years ago.”
“My dad’s name was Lawrence and he too to known as Lol. This head stone does not offend me, but I never use the phrase LOL as its his nickname.”
“If you didn’t laugh you have no sense of humour. Period.”
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