yawning face
Unicode: 1F971
Description
A yellow face with a hand covering its mouth, wide, innocent eyes, and blushing cheeks. It suggests shyness, embarrassment, modesty, or keeping a secret.
Group:
Smileys & Emotion > face-concerned
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Typically represents shyness, embarrassment, modesty, humility, blushing, or the act of keeping a secret or being speechless.
Backstory
This emoji was introduced in Unicode 10.0 (2017). It quickly gained popularity as a visual representation of shyness, blushing, or the feeling of being caught in an embarrassing but often endearing moment. Its design evokes a sense of innocence and slight discomfort.
Usage Examples
- Expressing shyness: 'Oh, stop it, you're making me blush 羞!'
- Feeling embarrassed 'I completely forgot her name 羞!'
- Revealing a secret: 'Guess what I did 羞'
- Polite humility: 'Oh, it was nothing really 羞'
- Caught off guard: 'Didn't expect that question 羞'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Commonly used to express shyness, blushing, or 'oops' moments when someone is caught off guard or feels a little awkward.
East Asian culture:
Often used to convey modesty, humility, or to politely apologize for something. Also used to express being 'flustered' or pleasantly surprised.