July 17 is World Emoji Day, a celebration of all things emoji. It’s the perfect occasion to promote some writing I’ve been doing for Emojipedia, the encyclopedia for emoji—and one reason, among other word-working, the blog has been less active in recent weeks.
As you may recall, I’ve been writing a series we’re calling Emojiology for the Emojipedia blog. It’s a sort of philology of emoji, a fun but thoroughgoing study of their origins and development of their forms and function.
I shared the debut piece, on Sleepy Face , back in March, but you may have some catching up to do. We’ve since traced the animated roots of Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes , unpacked the subtle snark of Smirking Face , and addressed the unexpected drama of Loudly Crying Face.
Stayed tuned, as plenty more are in the pipeline for those curious about how emoji came to be and the many ways we put them to use.
I hope this tides over the etymologically deprived among you. More soon, he pledges from Granada, which may take its from granatum, the Latin for pomegranate, itself literally meaning “seed9y apple”!