Unsupported titles/¯\`lowbar`(ツ)`lowbar`/¯

Translingual

Alternative forms

¯_(ツ)_/¯ (failed rendering)

Etymology

Created using the Japanese katakana ツ (tsu) to represent a pair of eyes and smirking mouth, and various other Unicode characters to represent shrugging arms.

Symbol

¯\_(ツ )_/¯

An emoticon representing a smirking face and a pair of arms raised in a shrug; a shruggie.
- 2012 May 30, Arrow, volume 4, number 7 (in English), Renton, Washington: Renton High School, page 2:
  Kevin Chung misses his one emo-scene who got away ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- 2014 September 5, Elias Isquith, “Sean Hannity: I can’t encourage military service 'in good conscience' while Obama is president”, in Salon‎^[1] (in English):
  Peters next went on to remind Hannity that Obama would eventually no longer be president (which strikes us as not particularly germane to Hannity’s claim that he couldn’t recommend military service while Obama is president, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) and then called the military “the one institution we must preserve at all costs.”
- 2014 September 15, Tim Herrera, “How Urban Outfitters trades on moral outrage”, in The Washington Post‎^[2] (in English):
  4. (Optional) Send half-hearted “sorry you were offended ¯\_(ツ)_/¯” non-apology.
- 2024 September 4, Mehera Bonner, Samantha Olson, “Behold, A Breakdown of Billie Eilish's Massive Net Worth”, in Cosmopolitan‎^[3] (in English):
  Exact figures aren’t known quite yet, but WWD reported that the perfume was expected to bring home $60 million in sales for its first year on the market. Tbh, the fact that Billie [Eilish] dropped her second fragrance, aptly named Eilish No. 2, just in time for the holidays in 2021 means that she probs met that figure, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Unsupported titles/¯\`lowbar`(ツ)`lowbar`/¯.

Usage notes

Despite the use of a Japanese character, it is overall wholly uncharacteristic of Japanese kaomoji and indeed is used primarily in the West.