Laugh out loud

"laughing out loud" or "laugh out loud" "LOL (also written with some or all letters lowercase, most commonly as lol or LoL) is a common element of Internet slang used historically on Usenet but now widespread in other forms of computer-mediated communication, and even face-to-face communication. It is an abbreviation for "laughing out loud" or "laugh out loud". LOL is one of many initialisms for expressing bodily reactions, in particular laughter, as text, including initialisms such as ROTFL ("roll(ing) on the floor laughing"), a more emphatic expressions of laughter, and BWL ("bursting with laughter"), above which there is "no greater compliment" according to technology columnist Larry Magid. Other unrelated expansions include the less common "lots of luck" or "lots of love". The list of acronyms "grows by the month" and they are collected along with emoticons and smileys into folk dictionaries that are circulated informally amongst users of Usenet, IRC, and other forms of (textual) computer-mediated communication. These initialisms are controversial, and several authors recommend against their use, either in general or in specific contexts such as business communications." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lol