Where it comes from
It is a classic text-only Japanese emoticon: ^_^ is a smiling face and the semicolon ; is a bead of sweat on the side of the head, like in manga.
When to use it
Use it to soften an apology, admit a small mistake, or laugh off an awkward situation. It is polite enough for many casual work chats too.
Examples
- Sorry, I forgot to attach the file (^_^;)
- I thought the meeting was tomorrow (^_^;)
Variants to copy
What it is made of
Every character in the face with its Unicode code point — handy if one shows up as a box on a friend's phone.
(
U+0028left parenthesis^
U+005Ecircumflex accent_
U+005Flow line;
U+003Bsemicolon)
U+0029right parenthesis