What does "<3" mean?

May 12, 2006 6:12 PM

What does "<3" mean?

I'm starting to see this more and more, and I'm not sure what it means. The best I can come up with is it looks like a woman's bosom.

posted by nickerbocker to Society & Culture (51 answers total)

Best answer: It's a heart.
posted by Shutter at 6:13 PM on May 12, 2006

it's a heart, sometimes written I <3 you which means i love youbr>
now please shoot me
posted by killyb at 6:13 PM on May 12, 2006

It might, but from what I've seen it's meant to recreate a heart - kind of like the days of ANSI art. I'm sure someone will post a good guide to smilies online for you.
posted by rmm at 6:14 PM on May 12, 2006

Response by poster: Ohh... i see it now! Thanks.

Have you noticed that a lot of people have reduced the classic smiley face :) to just )?? Or is it just me?
posted by nickerbocker at 6:17 PM on May 12, 2006

Course, first thing I thought was "mathematical expression meaning less than three." But I'm not very romantic.
posted by ZakDaddy at 6:19 PM on May 12, 2006

It kind of looks like a butt, to be honest.
posted by ORthey at 6:21 PM on May 12, 2006

Every time I see this it looks like a bosom. I guess that's typical of me, being male. Interestingly I only see <3 used on prepubescent blogs... and I don't go there intentionally, mind you.
posted by chef_boyardee at 6:29 PM on May 12, 2006

$goth == s/<3//g;
posted by 31d1 at 6:41 PM on May 12, 2006

It is an ice cream cone with two scoops side-by-side.
posted by rob paxon at 6:41 PM on May 12, 2006

If you want to make a better heart, type an ampersand, followed by the word hearts, and then a semicolon:

& hearts ;

comes out like ♥
posted by anjamu at 6:44 PM on May 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

You call that a heart? This is a ♥.
posted by purephase at 6:44 PM on May 12, 2006

Does your need to show everyone's hearts up come from a desire to compensate for small breasts and/or testicles (where applicable)?
posted by rob paxon at 6:46 PM on May 12, 2006

rob paxon writes "Does your need to show everyone's hearts up come from a desire to compensate for small breasts and/or testicles (where applicable)?"

Most definitely. I actually have a t-shirt with that exact phrase on it. ;)

(... and for the record, if you're using Windows just hold down Alt and hit 3 on your numpad)
posted by purephase at 6:50 PM on May 12, 2006

posted by insomnus at 6:51 PM on May 12, 2006

♥ I just wanted to try it. What other shapes can I make?
posted by LittleMissCranky at 7:22 PM on May 12, 2006

n2m ==> nm.

Huh? What's that mean?
posted by croutonsupafreak at 7:36 PM on May 12, 2006

On Livejournal, sometimes the code breaks if you try to write <3. So often most people would go "I LESS THAN THREE YOU!"
posted by divabat at 7:36 PM on May 12, 2006

not too much==> not much
posted by MadamM at 7:38 PM on May 12, 2006

A lot.

I apologize in advance.
posted by intermod at 7:39 PM on May 12, 2006

i have taken to saying "I heart you" in conversation since i've been using aim more. Then again, I'm a 16 year old girl so I can get away with it. Plus my typing is way better.
posted by MadamM at 7:39 PM on May 12, 2006

I think it means "u r old"
posted by Good Brain at 7:51 PM on May 12, 2006

I've also seen </3, which I guess means "not."
posted by booth at 8:25 PM on May 12, 2006

nm == "never mind"

<3 is also referred to, in my very small circle, as "buttcone", but with intentional irony—the "heart" meaning is known.
posted by cortex at 9:19 PM on May 12, 2006

</3 = heartbroken, no? At least, it does according to the Questionable Content merchandise.
posted by heatherann at 9:31 PM on May 12, 2006

I ♥ NY
I ♠ my cat
posted by Guy Smiley at 9:33 PM on May 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

me & my girl did that in googletalk today....AND IT ROTATED AND TURNED PINK AND IT WAS AWESOME!

ahem. i mean "it was interesting".
posted by Brainy at 9:49 PM on May 12, 2006

I'll ♣ your cat if I get the chance.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 9:50 PM on May 12, 2006

P.S. Participating in this thread automatically excludes you from the Rapture.
posted by rob paxon at 1:51 AM on May 13, 2006

All the card symbols (hearts, clubs, etc) come out like this: |

. . . on my Firefox browser, but not in Internet Explorer and other browsers. Does anybody else experience this or know whats up?
posted by dgaicun at 2:24 AM on May 13, 2006

The opposite of <3 is not </3 it's h8.
posted by aubilenon at 2:37 AM on May 13, 2006

</3 is, logically, a broken heart.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 3:19 AM on May 13, 2006

dgaicun: I use Firefox and I see them fine.
posted by divabat at 4:07 AM on May 13, 2006

dgaicun -- check your character encoding. Try for Unicode (UTF-8).

The card symbols are still a bit iffy on browser support, plus, people don't remember how to do the wacky &###; codes, hence the <3.
posted by Katemonkey at 5:08 AM on May 13, 2006

metafilter: I & hearts ; y'all.
posted by Sijeka at 5:54 AM on May 13, 2006

The crazy thing is, a real heart is nothing vaguely like the cartoon heart shape we all draw.
posted by wackybrit at 6:12 AM on May 13, 2006

No, but a woman's buttocks are vaguely like the cartoon heart shape we all draw.
posted by anthill at 7:29 AM on May 13, 2006

I &clubs Seals.
posted by Roger Dodger at 7:48 AM on May 13, 2006

I &ampclubs seals.
posted by Roger Dodger at 7:50 AM on May 13, 2006

I give up.
posted by Roger Dodger at 7:51 AM on May 13, 2006

*hands Roger a ♣
posted by casarkos at 7:59 AM on May 13, 2006

I have a friend who likes to say "I 2.99 you." It's really terrible.
posted by heresiarch at 8:14 AM on May 13, 2006

heresiarch writes "I have a friend who likes to say 'I 2.99 you.' It's really terrible."


wtf?
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 9:18 AM on May 13, 2006

2.99 is less than 3...
posted by benzo8 at 9:31 AM on May 13, 2006

"I 2.99 you."
tee hee tee hee
posted by kechi at 11:15 AM on May 13, 2006

check your character encoding. Try for Unicode (UTF-8).

First thing I tried a while back (I'm still on Unicode in fact for that reason). Ah well.
posted by dgaicun at 12:22 PM on May 13, 2006

i <3 philosophy
posted by jenovus at 2:10 PM on May 13, 2006

And jenovus, LOL. I'm sure they meant the author!!
posted by rob511 at 3:26 PM on May 13, 2006

I've also seen it used as a symbol for "asshat" although almost always in a joking, affectionate manner. As in "my ass wears a hat for you" instead of "I <3 you."
posted by LeeJay at 3:57 PM on May 13, 2006

benzo8 writes "2.99 is less than 3..."

My bf explained that to me about five seconds after I hit post.

Dammit.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 8:09 AM on May 14, 2006

nm = not much, and
nvm = means nevermind.
And the not well known S2 , which is a heart if you look carefully.

Being a teenager who has used IMs, blogs, and internet games most of my life, I was pretty confident of my acronym vocabulary... Until I found this website. There are alot of acronyms I've never seen before...

IMO = In My Opinion ?
posted by lain at 6:17 PM on May 19, 2006

The full regimen: IM[[NS]H]O (in my [[not so] humble] opinion.

IYKWIM. AITYD. HTH, HAND.
posted by cortex at 6:29 PM on May 19, 2006