Emoticon - WikipediaCover of the French magazine Le Charivari, text of a legal ruling against it in the shape of a pear, 1834 In 1648, poet Robert Herrick wrote, "Tumble me down, and I will sit Upon my ruins, (smiling yet:)." Herrick's work predated any other recorded use of brackets as a smiling face by around 200 years. However, experts doubted the inclusion of the colon in the poem was deliberate and if it was mea
