๐ Rainbow emoji
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What does ๐ Rainbow emoji mean?
The rainbow emoji ๐ depicts a colorful arc of a rainbow. When not representing the meteorological phenomenon, the emoji can express various positive emotions, such as happiness, feelings of togetherness, hope, and good fortune. Along with the rainbow flag emoji ๐ณ๏ธโ๐, itโs commonly used to express LGBTQ identity and pride.
Where does ๐ Rainbow emoji come from?
The rainbow emoji was added to Unicode 6.0 in 2016. Apple first implemented the emoji under iOS 2.2 in 2008 for iPhones in Japan, where the cell phone carriers SoftBank and au by KDDI had featured early versions of the emoji since 2000 and 2003, respectively.
https://twitter.com/Nancycatsings/status/1019269072486354944
Across major platforms, the rainbow emoji displays as an arc with most of the traditional colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Sorry, indigo. Facebook, however, does include an indigo band in its design, displayed in a blue sky. WhatsAppโs design has the rainbow emanating from a white cloud.
With its diverse colors coming together into one, the rainbow has been a symbol of LGBTQ pride since 1978. That year, San Francisco politician and iconic gay rights activist Harvey Milk commissioned Gilbert Baker, a drag queen and US military veteran, to create a new flag to represent the LGBTQ community.
In 2015, after the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, self-described โqueer trans feminist nerdโ Noah Slater requested the Unicode Consortiumโthe organization that approves new emojisโadd a rainbow flag that โunambiguously symbolizes queer pride.โ Unicode took action in 2016, making available a rainbow flag emoji as a sequence of the white flag emoji ๐ณ๏ธ and rainbow emoji ๐, yielding ๐ณ๏ธโ๐.
Examples of ๐ Rainbow emoji
Live from my sisterโs wedding ๐๐๐ณ๏ธโ๐ #LoveIsLove
happy Monday,stay positive!!!! May the week be in your favour!!!! take time to treat yourself! โจ๐๐ค๐ฆโ๏ธโจ๐ฏ
We are enjoying this beautiful Friday at @WilliamBerczyPS by taking playful learning outside with @ourkinderworld #YRDSBEarlyYears ๐ณ๐โ๏ธ
Who uses ๐ Rainbow emoji?
The rainbow emoji is often used, of course, when commenting on pictures of rainbows โฆ
You know it's going to be a good day when โฆ ๐โ2๏ธโฃ pic.twitter.com/f8cTkEmGsM
โ PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 31, 2019
โฆ or other moments of natural splendor.
Thank you God, for the painted sky๐โ๏ธ๐ #godisgood #nofilter #nature pic.twitter.com/aU0G4ZRhWZ
โ Lily Nelsen (@LilyNelsenMusic) February 10, 2017
Given that they are beautiful and special, rainbows, including in their emoji form, can express various positive feelings, such as happiness and togetherness.
https://twitter.com/orcoastaquarium/status/1133777546686787585
Rainbows also figure prominently in myth and story. They are associated with luck, thanks to Irish tales of leprechauns hiding pots of gold at the end of rainbows. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, rainbows are associated with hope, as God issued a rainbow after Noahโs Flood as a covenant never to destroy life. These associations may also come into play in uses of the rainbow emoji.
goodluck on your future guys ๐๐ป see you when i see you ๐โจ iโm gonna miss you guys for sure ๐ญ pic.twitter.com/3HBPWaIAFX
โ Alif Firdaus (@_aliffirdaus_) May 31, 2019
https://twitter.com/JEnyiah/status/1133473668565262337
Very frequently, the rainbow emoji is used for various LGBTQ content, including identifying as LGBTQ, LGBTQ activism, and celebrating LGBTQ pride, especially during Pride Month in June.
Happy PRIDE Month! ๐โค๏ธ๐งก๐๐๐๐ pic.twitter.com/LDZ5uJcgIb
โ ๋ ๋ (@nnuknnuk) May 31, 2019
NOTE
This is not meant to be a formal definition of ๐ Rainbow emoji like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of ๐ Rainbow emoji that will help our users expand their word mastery.
