The further, the more people use various incomprehensible abbreviations in speech. Let's deal with one of them. What is "afk", what phrase this expression came from and where it is used - read in the article.
Borrowings and jargon
In any living language spoken by people, new, borrowed words from foreign languages and dialects gradually appear. Slang is a little different. Usually these are distorted words of the native language or their abbreviations. But they can also come from foreign speech, and for some specific reason people will like it.
The Internet played a particularly big role in this. Its widespread distribution has led to the fact that it even formed its own subcultures, legends and, of course, slang. The latter varies depending on the particular community of people. And one of these words, which is far from clear to everyone, is afk. So what is afk, how did it happen and who uses it? We'll figure it out.
Definition
This word comes from the English phrase AFK - Away From Keyboard, which literally means "departed from the keyboard." But, why should someone report such information, and even reduce it to an obscure abbreviation? It's all about brevity, say or write "afk"much easier and faster, and it is immediately clear to everyone that a person is not at the computer at the moment. So now we know what afk is.
Internet
It all started with the first programs for communicating over the Net. Many adults remember those times - the lack of now widespread social networks and other things led to the fact that messengers for instant text messaging and other chats were insanely popular. In addition to communication between two people, there were also common channels where many users corresponded, united by common hobbies or something else. And since those programs did not have presence indicators or they did not work quite correctly, it became fashionable to write “afk”, informing all interlocutors that you were moving away from the computer and could only answer later. So now we know what afk is.
But nowadays text messaging programs are not as popular as they used to be. They were replaced by social networks, but they could not completely displace them. True, few people use the old versions and varieties, only their ardent supporters. But if so, why is this word alive and still used today? It's all about online games.
Online games
Such games differ from ordinary computer games in that they can be played with your friends or random people. Of course, the entire virtual world is not inhabited exclusively by "live" people, there are also non-player characters (NPCs). Of course, in mostOf these, you can quite comfortably play alone, but at certain stages you still have to cooperate with other players and fight all together. However, that is why they are loved.
When playing together, teamwork is very important, especially in situations where even the slightest mistake can lead to the death of the group or the failure of the task, and therefore, in order to warn your comrades about the absence, it is customary to write “afk” in text or voice chat. So now we know what afk means.
Conclusion
Of course, one can quite rightly object - why do we need incomprehensible abbreviations when you can use your native language? But it is so accepted that in any community, subculture, and even online game, its own slang gradually appears. Of course, no one is forcing them to use it, but most of the words have remained from the time when online games or programs did not have a Russian translation. Yes, and as already mentioned, writing or saying “afk” is much faster and more convenient, and everything is immediately clear to everyone. So we figured out what afk means.
