Does 1648 Poem Contain the World's First Emoticon? Probably Not

Though emoticons have become widely popular in the Internet era, they did exist much earlier — most definitely as early as the 19th century

Now, a new discovery from a poetry fan reveals that the smiley may date as early as 1648, when it appeared in a poem called "To Fortune" by Robert Herrick. Found by Levi Stahl, publicity manager for the University of Chicago Press, and first reported by The Atlantic, the poem has a smiley face next to the words "smiling yet."

It could, of course, be a typo, but it could also be deliberate — after all, the concept of the smiley is pretty simple and could easily be as old as typography itself. However, this doesn't seem to be the case here Read more...