Not every new emoji from the latest update for iOS 9.1 is as popular as the taco, which got a Change.org petition to fight for its existence. Many didn’t have the built-in audience of the middle finger, nerd face, or the sign of the horns. Even the mysterious “eye in speech bubble” emoji turns out to have its roots in a new anti-bullying campaign launched by The Ad Council this morning called, I Am A Witness. No, among the 185 new emoji listed by the Unicode Consortium, there are outcasts and strange symbols whose meaning, use, and adoption is uncertain.
When the emoji names were first announced last year, we speculated about many of these characters’ meanings, from snarky comments about warehouse raves to paranoia about the NSA. Now that they’re in your phone, we’ve gathered the enigmas, misfits, and pure WTFs from our new set of modern hieroglyphics so you can really bang out their connotive potential.
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Wind Blowing in Face
For when words aren’t enough to covey that you want to mildly annoy the person you’re talking to.
Man in Business Suit Levitating
Not jumping, not dancing, not falling—levitating. This emoji is for a universe of superheroes.
Alembic
An alembic is an alchemical tool for distilling liquids, so yeah, try using that in everyday conversation.
Derelict House Building
This is actually emoji for, “There were nearly 1.4 million home forclosures in the year 2013.”
Amphora
While technically a “vase-like object” associated with the Zodiac sign Aquarius, we’re sure this thing is more likely to be used in reference to the Gospel-singing muses from Disney’s Hercules.
Trackball
“What’s the most used and relevant form of technology we can include in this round of emoji?” “Uh, drones?” “Wearable tech?” “Robo-bartender—” “Wait! I’ve got it! The TRACKBALL!” “…”
Funeral Urn
There’s also a coffin, so the funeral urn seems kind of like overkill.
Eye in Speech Bubble
Anti-bullying campaign or no, we’re only using this eye when we say stuff the NSA is definitely reading.
See the full list of emojis on Emojipedia.
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