Word Emoji Day 2019 — The Whole Scoop on Emoji Poop

Here’s a voicemail question that made me laugh:

“Hi. I just got a text message that said, “Holy, and it had the poop emoticon, and “holy” was spelled “WHOLLY.” And the person who sent it to me, I know English isn't his first language. So I was gonna write back, “You, know it's really HOLY poop emoticon, and then I thought, well, maybe he really means entirely poop emoticon ... is there a rule about holy [bleep]. Anyway, it's Emily from the Bronx. Thank you so much. I love your Podcast.”

I was going to answer your question anyway, but it turns out that it’s also quite timely because July 17 is World Emoji Day, chosen because July 17 is the date that appears on the calendar emoji. Makes sense.

First, we’ll talk about the emoji, and then we’ll talk about the spelling of “wholly.”

What Does the Poop Emoji Mean?

The poop emoji is pretty straightforward. It means what it looks like, and people use it both literally and figuratively. It first appeared in Japan in 1997 on a phone from the carrier SoftBank that turned out not to be very popular. It was later included on other platforms and was eventually added to the Unicode set in 2010. It’s popular, although it’s not in most lists of top-10 emoji that I could find.

Why Is the Poop Emoji Popular in Japan?

And my editor, Karen Hertzberg, told me this fun fact: along with poop emoji, poop trinkets are also a thing in Japanese culture. The Japanese word for poop is “unko,” and the word for “luck” starts with the same "oon" sound, so little poop images and trinkets became associated with good luck in Japan. 

How to Learn More About Emoji

If you want to know more about emoji, I did a fun interview last year with Jane Solomon, a lexicographer at dictionary.com, when that site started adding definitions for emoji. You can find it at QuickAndDirtyTips.com by searching for “emoji.”

Is ‘Wholly Poop’ a New Eggcorn?

I thought your call was especially interesting because it’s the first example I’ve heard of an emoji being used in something linguists call an “eggcorn.” I wrote about eggcorns a few years ago:

The term was coined in 2003 after a discussion on the Language Log website about a woman who misheard the word “acorn,”...

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