Self-referential Asterisks

December 8, 2007 2:30 PM

What is the origin of using asterisks to bracket a self-referential action statement?

The term "self-referential" should probably be qualified by "from an objective perspective". For example, instead of writing "I check my watch" I simply write *checks watch*.

Most etymology questions are about words or phrases, and not novel uses of punctuation. My guess is that this is an Internet meme, probably recent, but I'm curious if anyone can give me a better answer. Was this novel usage around before the Internet?

The Wikipedia entry for "Asterisk" gives me this:

"In informal written communications, particularly those via e-mail, instant messaging, or BBS, asterisks are often used to bracket a predicate denoting the performance of an action, to indicate that the person typing is performing that action. Example: *writes a wikipedia article*."

But there is no indication as to when or where this arose.

*hovers cursor over Preview the Question*

posted by Tube to Writing & Language (26 answers total)

In many IRC clients and other early chat programs, users could "emote" by starting their line with "/me." In most clients, typing something like "/me answers your AskMe question" would result in "*Partial Law answers your AskMe question*" Some clients would only include the first asterisk.
posted by Partial Law at 2:42 PM on December 8, 2007

It may partially originate from IRC, where an action (/me posts an answer on AskMe) shows up with an asterisk in front:

* neckro23 posts an answer on AskMe
posted by neckro23 at 2:43 PM on December 8, 2007

*thinks it has something to do with MUDs*
posted by Rock Steady at 2:50 PM on December 8, 2007

I remember the norm in AOL chat rooms was using :: to indicate an action.

::wonders if this is relevant to your question::

Also, singing was indicated by 0/~ (kinda looks like a head and up-stretched arm, with the tilde suggesting sound waves. Or underarm odor. Used thusly:

0/~ Load up on guns, bring your friends 0/~

I'm not sure if the AOL chat norm has morphed into the asterisk.

After saying all that, I do think the logical answer is neckro23's suggestion. I saw asterisks often in non-AOL chat rooms to indicate action. But these were used in automated posts supplied by the server software.
*The Deej has entered the chat
*The Deej has left the chat

It would make sense that people started creating their own actions to mimic the server-created ones.
*The Deej has yapped enough and is now posting this comment
posted by The Deej at 2:54 PM on December 8, 2007

More specifically, it probably originated mostly with the default ircII reaction to the CTCP ACTION message, which as others stated, caused output like:

* wierdo answers a question

That happens to be the same way it parsed and displayed JOIN and LEAVE messages from the server.

Either that, or as Wikipedia notes, it's possible the double asterisk originated on BBSes, but I never saw it on the boards I frequented, but given that a lot of BBSers ended up on IRC in the mid 90s, I wouldn't be surprised if that's how it made the jump. It's much easier to type /me, though. It flows more easily than shift-8 foo shift-8, IMO.
posted by wierdo at 3:03 PM on December 8, 2007

Also, singing was indicated by 0/~ (kinda looks like a head and up-stretched arm, with the tilde suggesting sound waves. Or underarm odor. Used thusly:

I'm pretty sure it was supposed to resemble a note: ♪
posted by camcgee at 3:04 PM on December 8, 2007

camcgee, The Deej: helps if you change the characters slightly: I always saw the "musical note" as o/`
posted by agentofselection at 3:13 PM on December 8, 2007

There's a cool little feature in Adium that replicates this for IM. One time I forgot I was on AIM instead of IRC, did a /me action, and it came out with asterisks.

* was pleased *
posted by jbrjake at 3:30 PM on December 8, 2007

rocksteady gets my vote. i used to mud nightly for about 5 years there (95 - 99 (PK Mud anyone? DOTI?). that * was the start of an emote.
posted by Davaal at 3:40 PM on December 8, 2007

I'm pretty sure it was supposed to resemble a note: ♪
posted by camcgee

DAMMIT! Now you tell me!

I always only ever saw it as a singer. Musical note makes more sense though.

Dammit! I'm such an idiot!

*Signs up to AOL again*
posted by The Deej at 3:54 PM on December 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

The use of asterisks-bounded action descriptions played a part in the explanation of a question I had recently about some German blog chatter; whether the asterisks-bounding goes back to Erikative-type roots that predate net-chatter, I don't know, but I'm very curious where this all goes.
posted by cortex at 5:00 PM on December 8, 2007

We did this in chat back in the BBS days of the early 90s -- it was, as The Deej notes, mimicry of automatic "actions," and an alternate of using <>'s.
posted by desuetude at 5:31 PM on December 8, 2007

::still uses the AOL standard::

::hasn't used AOL since 2001::
posted by RobotHeart at 6:32 PM on December 8, 2007

/* Any relation to the way that comments are done in C? */
posted by Orb2069 at 7:48 PM on December 8, 2007

I also think this came from IRC. I don't remember seeing actions described that way on the BBSes; I think it was an artifact of chatting.

As I recall -- and remember that I wasn't really paying attention to this at the time, and it was about 20 years ago -- BBSes were fairly formal, and didn't have the immediacy of a chat. You wouldn't use that kind of action wording, because there was no illusion that you 'were present' at the time.

I'm quite sure action wording is an outgrowth of the illusion of presence in a live chat, but whether or not it was specifically IRC.... dunno. It could have been an organic outgrowth of all the various methods of doing it.
posted by Malor at 9:06 PM on December 8, 2007

In 1992, I was in college, and played a MUD where the backslash was shorthand for "emote." this meant that you could write something like:

/laughs at Tube

And it would appear as part of the narrative:

"Miko laughs at Tube."

This was about the same time that IRC was being developed, so perhaps the command structure was shared. Asterisks seemed to be used in programs similarly.

Don't know if that helps, but it was an early example of keyboard symbols being used to communicate action.
posted by Miko at 9:22 PM on December 8, 2007

Pedantry warning, sorry Miko:

the backslash was shorthand for "emote." ... /laughs at Tube

The character "\" is called a backslash. It leans backward.
The character "/" is called a slash, or a forward slash if you must.

"aitch tee tee pee colon backslash backslash" grinds my gears every time.
posted by lostburner at 1:53 AM on December 9, 2007

I think you might need to look further back than IRC. For example, the 1983 jargon file says this:

Spoken Inarticulations
Words such a "mumble", "sigh", and "groan" are spoken in places where their referent might more naturally be used. It has been suggested that this usage derives from the impossibility of representing such noises in conversation by computer (see COM MODE); one gets so used to typing "Sigh!" to indicate a sigh that one soon develops the vocal habit of saying the word instead of actually sighing. Another expression sometimes heard is "complain!" (meaning not "You, complain!" but "I have a complaint!")

It doesn't mention the use of asterisks in this context though.

It's a pity that Google can't search for punctuation.
posted by reynaert at 2:05 AM on December 9, 2007

I started using asterisks for emote in ICQ chats in the late 90s before I'd ever seen it done elsewhere, for the following reason:

1. I played some game (I can't recall) which had the \me functionality described above.
2. In that game, when you typed e.g. "\me eats breakfast", it appeared as hAndrew eats breakfast (in a boldface font).
3. I mentally equated "boldface" with "emote".
4. In Microsoft Word (and now in many other programs such as Google Talk), typing something like *asdf* results in automatic conversion to boldface: asdf.
5. I used asterisks in ICQ to emulate boldface (and thereby emote).

I went through the same process with underscores for emphasis for the same reason: Word (and nowadays Google Talk and other programs) automatically convert _this_ to this.
posted by hAndrew at 4:23 AM on December 9, 2007

As I recall -- and remember that I wasn't really paying attention to this at the time, and it was about 20 years ago -- BBSes were fairly formal, and didn't have the immediacy of a chat. You wouldn't use that kind of action wording, because there was no illusion that you 'were present' at the time.

There were multi-line BBSs with "chat rooms."
posted by desuetude at 9:08 AM on December 9, 2007

Like the Deej, I still use the AOL action indicators :::::::hangs head in shame::::::::
I started using asterisks as emphasis marks in chat rooms and email applications or message boards that didn't allow italics or bolding. I *still* use them that way on occasion. I don't know that I've seen them used to indicate action. *runs off to look around online*
posted by Oriole Adams at 9:12 AM on December 9, 2007

Response by poster: Thank you all very much for the input. As you can probably tell, I wasn't using the Internet back that far in time. But so far no one has alluded to using asterisks in this way outside of the Internet, in books, magazines or newspapers, so I think it safe to assume it's an Internet meme.

Just to be picky, there would be a difference between placing an asterisk just at the beginning and placing one at both ends of a statement. So I'm wondering about the modern incarnation, where asterisks are found at the beginning and at the end of the statement.
posted by Tube at 10:07 AM on December 9, 2007

I've seen the use of asterisks to describe private thoughts, etc, in some old (pre-1950s) science fiction books. Can't recall off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure that's where I first saw the use of the bracketing asterisks. They were also used to emote, somewhat.
posted by ysabet at 3:23 PM on December 9, 2007

Emotes in Ultima Online display that way, which is why I do it.
posted by restless_nomad at 11:26 AM on December 10, 2007

I was on numerous chat BBSs back in the day and that's where I first saw asterisks being used in that manner.

*suddenly feels very old*
posted by Serena at 8:01 PM on December 11, 2007

There's a cool little feature in Adium that replicates this for IM. One time I forgot I was on AIM instead of IRC, did a /me action, and it came out with asterisks.


Trillian does the some thing, as does pidgin.
posted by mhp at 10:38 PM on January 29, 2008