Before we LOLd and BRBd

Internet slang originated as a way to quickly relay a phrase or word without having to type out everything.  In time, it morphed into its own language.  But 'net lingo isn't the first system to abbreviate words to save time and space.  One of the earlier systems was a language I knew all too well, about ten years ago: ham radio lingo.

Ham radio lingo originates from radio lingo, which in turn originates from Morse Code lingo.  Morse Code lingo was used over wire and wireless relays.  For trains crossing the country or ships coming into port, when communication needed to get through all the mess of radio signals and relaying messages, a type of short code was devised to get a message through fast and effectively.  Much like today's LOL in an email, or BRB over IM, amateur radio operators use terms like 73 and QRZ.

In the last 24 hours, I've been communicating with my friend, Richard, through an amateur radio system.  Jill's never really heard me talk on the radio, and with almost ten years of inactivity, I'm a little rusty on some of the lingo.  But explaining it to her made me think about how adults get their underwear in a wad when kids use Internet or text lingo in place of real conversation.  Amateur radio operators have been doing it for 100 years, and telegraph operators were using it even before them.  There's nothing inherently new about using abbreviations and letter/number combinations in place of plain old English... most people just don't know that.

In an effort to bridge the language barriers, here's a taste of some of the old ham lingo.  Enjoy!

More "Q-Codes" can be found here.

Other radio slang terms can be found here.

Internet slang can be linked to from here.

73S!

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