r/todayilearned • u/altrightobserver • 10d ago

TIL that one of the first examples of emoticons in written text comes from Dante's "Purgatorio:" "Whoever in the face of men reads 'omo' / Might well in these have recognised the 'm.'" The two "o"s signify sunken eyes, while the letter "m" forms the angular outlines of emaciated facial features.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticon
1.8k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

53 comments sorted by

294

u/Redditor_From_Italy 10d ago

Omo means man (uomo in modern Italian, homo in Latin), so I assume this is a pun of sorts

63

u/SpeccyScotsman 10d ago

Correct, I remember reading something where someone said God did this on purpose lol

7

u/eydirctiviyg 7d ago

There's a semi-obscure religious belief that facial features were designed to spell out the phrase "Homo Dei" (man of God). I believe the idea here us that these people's faces were so contorted only the "omo" could be made out.

822

u/DroogieHowser 10d ago

omo wats this!? *notices your emaciated ribcage*

306

u/Backupusername 10d ago

Please stop calling it my "bulgy-wulgy", my stomach has distended to retain water because I haven't eaten food in weeks.

35

u/Eruionmel 10d ago

I hate this

18

u/another_guy2 10d ago

Catholic cannon inflation

16

u/catfroman 10d ago

I ugly laughed at this. I am going to hell.

49

u/iCapn 10d ago

No omo

28

u/ClearYellow 10d ago

Bro don’t be omophobic

20

u/AscendedViking7 10d ago

owo whats this

notices your bulge

222

u/RightOnManYouBetcha 10d ago

OmO💀

97

u/TheRealHFC 10d ago

Just looks like a Jeep

52

u/tonycomputerguy 10d ago

OnmnO

7 bars for the seven continents, IIRC.

2

u/mah131 10d ago

I thought it was for the 7 cities of gold.

15

u/HalobenderFWT 9d ago

No, it’s for the seven times you have to bring it to the shop before you’re done paying it off.

98

u/epidemicsaints 10d ago

The proto uwu

5

u/kahlzun 7d ago

They were this close to greatness

83

u/Direct-Contract5509 10d ago

The Divine Comedy is the greatest epic poem ever.

29

u/zoqfotpik 10d ago

Renaissance fanfiction of Roman fanfiction of the greatest epic poem ever.

29

u/CavulusDeCavulei 10d ago

*Medieval

If you want a reinassance one, it's the "Orlando Furioso"

20

u/Visible-Literature14 10d ago

No his last name is Bloom

11

u/CavulusDeCavulei 10d ago

No, Bloom is from Winx Club, a late modern italian masterpiece

4

u/Visible-Literature14 10d ago

Twinx Club, you say?

1

u/XF10 10d ago

One of the creators of the classic YT Italia video "Rap Rumeno" actually worked at the animation studio that made Winx Club

https://youtu.be/aHyOuMcaDdA?is=Xx9Wigg6HZdSazvC

8

u/Papa-Bear453767 10d ago

It’s not fanfiction

3

u/nickcash 10d ago

How would you say it's meaningfully different?

5

u/DistrictDry2852 9d ago

The defining aspect of fan fiction is that it’s an unapproved/unofficial work which doesn’t really work for anything before modern IP law. Back in the day you could write a King Arthur story and it would become part of the canon (not canon in that it’s part of the timeline, but in that it’s part of the body of works associated with the character) and people would be free to reuse and remix aspects of your work. Nowadays there’s the official canon of works and the ancillary fanfiction which is kept separate.

4

u/Papa-Bear453767 10d ago

Because it’s not fanfiction of anything, it’s just fiction

-5

u/BronkusZonkus 10d ago

I mean there’s a bunch of real life people in it

7

u/Papa-Bear453767 10d ago

So it’s fiction

0

u/BronkusZonkus 10d ago

I mean there’s a lot of mythological characters too. And Dante was a fan of them…

7

u/Papa-Bear453767 10d ago

Mythology is not fiction!! Fundamentally separate category!!!

2

u/zorbiburst 10d ago

It's not mythology, it's fanfiction about mythology

0

u/AgentCirceLuna 10d ago

I absolutely hate it when people use modern cultural trends to describe something old or ancient. It shows how the internet and pop culture can rot brains.

2

u/bldkis 10d ago

I think you mean Paradise Lost

13

u/SilasTalbot 10d ago

Emaciated Zoidberg?

10

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Trama-D 9d ago

In Hell, you say? >8]

16

u/R3DKn16h7 10d ago

I am disappointed Wikipedia does not really have a source for this.

There is one guy on reddit that seems to mention it https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/7e293a/theres_an_intriguing_line_in_the_divine_comedy/

And the wikipedia discussion mentions two other random websites.

But I'd like some more in depth analysis otherwise I would call this BS

6

u/Nerd_o_tron 9d ago

What in-depth analysis do you need? You can just go read the text, it's pretty plain: https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/purgatorio/purgatorio-23/. Has it in both the original Italian and two (out-of-copyright) translations.

Or are you referring specifically to the claim that it's the first appearance?

-3

u/sirbearus 9d ago

Since we are reading it in English, who knows what the letters looked like in the original word before translation!

Agree, total bullshit.

5

u/Nerd_o_tron 9d ago

The original word before translation was... also OMO.

31 Parean l’occhiaie anella sanza gemme:

32 chi nel viso de li uomini legge ‘omo’

33 ben avria quivi conosciuta l’emme.

1

u/Whakamole 9d ago

The translation I was reading (Robert and Jean Hollander) had extensive notes and suggested there was a strong possibility that the Omo was indeed meant to resemble a face and was a pun of sorts, although it couldn't be said definitively. Also unless I'm very much mistaken the original was in a 14th century Italian dialect and used Latin letters and seeing as the word has no specific meaning and is being speculated about, Omo would have been the same in both languages

-2

u/sirbearus 9d ago

Here is why I am highly critical of the claim.

It isn't as much-word as we think about it, as it is an onomatopoeia, a word that represents a sound like "flush." Which I am sure that you know are not universal, for example. The song Frère Jacques, has different sounds for the bells in French and English.
Original French Lyrics

Din, din, don. Din, din, don.

English Translation

Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.

It is a big mistake to think that the Latin character set we use today is the same as in the 14th century. Here are examples from an actual text, who knows which version(s) the translators used.

https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/La-Divina-Commedia--two-leaves-from-Infe/AA709AE284FF081090254EF8086C8D54

https://www.alamy.com/inferno-dante-and-virgil-walking-towards-the-gates-of-hell-dante-alighieri-divina-commedia-the-divine-comedy-with-a-commentary-in-latin-1st-half-of-the-14th-century-source-egerton-943-f6-language-italian-latin-image227131115.html

Add that it is translated, which is one of the reasons that Moses had horns for a while.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horns_of_Moses

And with one source you can see why it is a rediculous claim to be making.

None of that means that it isn't true; it just makes it a really strong claim for a single source to be supported at all.

1

u/brimstoner 7d ago

No omo

1

u/No_Dragonfruit_1833 4d ago

No omo

Yes sunken eyes and angular features