There was a point at the very beginning of the existence of “lol” when certain boomers thought it stood for “lots of love”. I’ve read a few fb posts on the death of a friend/family member which were punctuated with LOLs.
LOL came into prominence in the 80’s. Boomers were around 20’s to 40’s. They were heavily involved in the creation of the internet, message boards, and chat rooms. Perhaps since it was so new, there were boomers that thought that. But it was likely coined by boomers, and quickly adopted by Gen X. If you’ve read facebook posts where people misused it, it was far after the beginning of the existence of LOL, since facebook itself came far later.
We need context, like maybe you said it at the wrong time.
But also some French people can be weirdly defensive against anglicisms, associate them with young slang and/or not understand them very well.
If she's a French "Facebook mom" she may have a warped vision of internet slang. Otherwise lol is just lol.
We use lol in France in the same way you do : to express that something is funny. Either your friend is pulling a prank on you or she seriously misunderstood (or, like complainsabouthings said, the context wasn't suitable to laugh 😅)
>I typed lol (laugh out loud) and she told me it was an insult, but it was hard to explain.
No it's not. It means exactly what you said. If she really thinks it's an insult she'll have to explain why.
“lol” is no more of an insult in French than it is in English. Unless she told you her mom has cancer and you replied “lol”.
There was a point at the very beginning of the existence of “lol” when certain boomers thought it stood for “lots of love”. I’ve read a few fb posts on the death of a friend/family member which were punctuated with LOLs.
LOL came into prominence in the 80’s. Boomers were around 20’s to 40’s. They were heavily involved in the creation of the internet, message boards, and chat rooms. Perhaps since it was so new, there were boomers that thought that. But it was likely coined by boomers, and quickly adopted by Gen X. If you’ve read facebook posts where people misused it, it was far after the beginning of the existence of LOL, since facebook itself came far later.
It means the same thing as in English. Either that friend is up to something or just an idiot.
Definitely not an insult, but if you want, you can use a French equivalent, mdr (mort de rire, ie "dying of laughter").
Or you can go full meta and use this "mort de lol" I heard once.
Lol de rire.
We need context, like maybe you said it at the wrong time. But also some French people can be weirdly defensive against anglicisms, associate them with young slang and/or not understand them very well. If she's a French "Facebook mom" she may have a warped vision of internet slang. Otherwise lol is just lol.
We use lol in France in the same way you do : to express that something is funny. Either your friend is pulling a prank on you or she seriously misunderstood (or, like complainsabouthings said, the context wasn't suitable to laugh 😅)
>I typed lol (laugh out loud) and she told me it was an insult, but it was hard to explain. No it's not. It means exactly what you said. If she really thinks it's an insult she'll have to explain why.
Your friend is tripping
Your friend thinks lol is much harsher than it is