Originally meant "laughing out loud," but according to linguist and 'TED Talks' guest, John McWhorter, "lol" eventually came to be used as a pragmatic particle or verbal space filler, if you
will, before finally evolving to it's current state of
popular use as a marker of empathy, accommodation, or understanding, quite often of something that isn't a great thing.
Nowadays when
people say "lol," you can obviously see that it no longer means "laughing out loud," and that it more likely means something
like "Well shit! The struggle is real but the thing you'
re talking about probably won't turn out 'too' bad compared to, oh I dunno, literal Satan, for example."
Obbapobble Sobbucksdobbicks: "Dude, I just
dropped my phone in the daaaayme
toilet again, and right on top of a tuuurd this
time!"
Trobbumps Obbafobbag: "lol damn, dude! That suurrrks! I've done that so many times!"
