What does Kappa mean? Twitch terms and emojis you should know about 

Justin.tv was an extremely-popular video streaming website way back in 2009. One of its most-popular channels was Twitch.tv, which became so popular that it eventually spawned an entire streaming platform by itself.

Twitch is now one of the most-popular streaming platforms on the internet, and is something of a cultural phenomenon.

There are several things unique to this platform, especially its indigenous humor and lingo. The "Kappa" is one of the most-widely used emojis on chat, and one that often puzzles people outside of the Twitch bubble.

The Kappa emoji used frequently on Twitch Chat

The "Kappa" has become a symbol of sarcasm in chats, and one of the most-used emojis.

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The origins of Kappa on Twitch

Picture credits: dictionary.com

In 2009, one of the engineers working on the Twitch chat client was Josh DeSeno, whose face is the emoji. Engineers working on the client would often communicate with emojis that they would develop back then.

DeSeno chose to use a greyscaled version of his Employee ID and named it "Kappa", after a turtle-like Japanese water spirit.

After the emoji was discovered on Twitch by users, it quickly became a symbol of displaying sarcasm in chats, perhaps due to the apparent smugness of the expression.

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There are several other emojis that have become entire languages unto themselves. Here are some that you should know about:

Picture credits: PCMag

BibleThump: A universal symbol for sadness.

PJSalt: To call out someone being "Salty", equivalent to petty or jealous.

FrankerZ: A popular callback to the Doge meme.

ResidentSleeper: To indicate something that is boring. A reference to the Oddler, a streamer who fell asleep during a 72-hour Resident Evil marathon.

FailFish: Used to indicate abject failure on a stream.

KreyGasm: This is used to express joy when something amazing happens on the stream.