Many of the abbreviated words and expressions used in text messaging are far from new, with a number of commonly used terms appearing in an abbreviations dictionary that was published in 1942.

Similarly, the use of initial letters for whole words (n for “no”, gf for “girlfriend”, cmb “call me back”) is not at all new. People have been initialising common phrases for ages. IOU is known from 1618. There is no difference, apart from the medium of communication, between a modern kid’s “lol” (”laughing out loud”) and an earlier generation’s “Swalk” (”sealed with a loving kiss”). In texts we find such forms as msg (”message”) and xlnt (”excellent”). Almst any wrd cn be abbrvted in ths wy - though there is no consistency between texters. But this isn’t new either. Eric Partridge published his Dictionary of Abbreviations in 1942. It contained dozens of SMS-looking examples, such as agn “again”, mth “month”, and gd “good” - 50 years before texting was born.