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Today we want to discuss with you one of the extremely rarely used emoticons from the standard Unicode set, the Rock Emoji, which is also called the Stone Emoji. In general, at first glance, everything here is rather prosaic. However, modern slang is constantly updated with new terms and concepts, and words (as well as images) often acquire additional meaning. And the Rock Emoji is just one of them.
🪨 The “Stone” emoticon was assigned the code U+1FAA8, with which it was added to the Places and Travel section of the Unicode 13.0 standard in 2020.
So, on the Rock Emoji we see an image of a dark gray solid rock/stone without any additional details. A stone is a solid rock, any solid mineral with the exception of pure metals and sand. Even in ancient times, stone was associated with durability, permanence and majesty of forms. And its enormous size made a great impression on primitive man. In ancient times, stones were even worshipped.
Rock is a non-renewable natural resource used in many areas of human life. Rocks are used to build houses and structures, make monuments, decorative slabs and coverings. They are used in jewelry, sculpture, architecture and painting.
So, the lexical meaning of the word “stone” in context means a solid mineral formation, often used in construction or as a material for making jewelry. However, this word (and emoji) also has figurative meanings.
One type of figurative meaning of the Rock Emoji is something that becomes an obstacle or causes difficulty in achieving a goal or accomplishing a task. Another meaning is somewhat or someone full of indifference, cruelty, insensitivity. mental heaviness. The Rock Emoji can also symbolize oppressive feeling.
And there is even more! For example, in British slang “a Stone” is a unit of weight, which is equal to 6,35 kilograms. So now you can see, that even the simplest emoji has many colorful sides.
Apart from the meanings of the Rock Emoji indicated above, you may often meet this emoticon in cheering messages and posts, as a part of the popular “Rock On” or “You Rock” expressions. You may use it as an encouragement, support, or congratulations. “You Rock” means “You can do it!” Or “You are a beast!”.
And also this emoji can mean a strong person, persistent, or too stubborn, “impenetrable”.
However, today you can more and more often meet this emoticon in more negative meanings. It is used to denote any insurmountable obstacles, or as a “stumbling block”. This emoji can also mean a rigid and unemotional person who does not care about other people’s difficulties.
Of course, first and foremost, a rock is any solid rock in the form of a single piece or solid mass. However, as you could see from this article, even such solid and straightforward emoticons can have a large number of emotional and slang meanings, so use the Rock Emoji wisely so as not to mislead your interlocutor.