beaver
Unicode: 1F9AB
Description
A yellow circular face with a small open mouth and tear-filled eyes, as if about to cry or has just cried.
Group:
Animals & Nature > animal-mammal
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Typically represents sadness, disappointment, or feeling overwhelmed leading to tears. It can also convey empathy or a bittersweet feeling.
Backstory
This emoji was introduced in Unicode 13.0 (2020) as part of a push to include more nuanced emotional expressions. It aims to capture a more subtle form of sadness or distress compared to the loudly crying face.
Usage Examples
- Expressing sadness: 'The movie ending made me 🥺'
- Feeling sorry for someone: 'Oh no, I'm so sorry that happened 🥺'
- Feeling overwhelmed/touched: 'Your kind words mean so much 🥺'
- Pleading or begging: 'Please, just five more minutes? 🥺'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Commonly used to express genuine sadness, despair, or being upset. Can also be used ironically for minor inconveniences.
East Asian culture:
Often used to express sadness, but sometimes also for feeling touched, moved, or overwhelmed with emotion, even positive ones, leading to tears of joy or gratitude.