Less Than Greater Than Emoticons

This is a list of Less Than and Greater Than Emoticons, also known as Tag Emoticons. They were used in IRCs and emails early on.

Letters in between less than and greater than signs, asterisks, or parentheses added emotion to sentences before horizontal emoticons were popularized.

The letters are usually acronyms for an expression, like <bg> for Big Grin.

Text	Description	Modern Emoji
<g> / *g* / (G)	Grin	🙂
<gg> / <bg> / <G>	Big Grin	😃
<vbg> / (VBG)	Very Big Grin	😄
<eg>	Evil Grin	😈
<beg>	Big Evil Grin	😈
<vbeg>	Very Big Evil Grin	😈
<weg>	Wicked Evil Grin	😈
<dg>	Devilish Grin	😈
<ig>	Impish Grin	😈
<d&r>	Ducking and Running	🏃
<gd&r>	Grinning, Ducking and Running	🏃😏
<gd&rvf> / <gd&rvvf> etc.	Grinning, Ducking and Running Very Fast	🏃💨😏
<ahem>	Clearing Throat	😤
<s> / *s* / (S)	Smile	🙂
<ss>	Big Smile	😃
<seg>	S***-Eating Grin	😏
<vbseg>	Very Big S***-Eating Grin	😏
<ggg>	Giggling	😆
(L)	Laughing	😂
(Y)	Yawn	😴