ASL

When a person sends you "ASL," they want you to send them your age, sex, and location. People typically send it in online chatrooms, on social media, or when texting when they want to know your physical appearance.

It is unclear who created the acronym, but it grew in popularity in the late-1990s as the Internet grew. People began meeting and connecting with strangers in online chatrooms during this time, often without being able to actually see them.

Since people send the acronym to uncover possibly sensitive information, recipients should be cautious when replying to an ASL request. People may send ASL as a standalone question ("ASL?"), or they may use it in a full sentence. They may also write it as A/S/L.

On social media, asl often means "as hell." It is used to emphasize the severity of someone's actions or emotional state. For example, someone who is "mad asl" is very angry, and someone who is "happy asl" is very happy.

Where did asl originate?

The phrase "as hell" is used to make statements sound more emphatic. For example, someone may say they've been working "hard as hell" to suggest that they've been working very hard.

Social media users shortened the phrase "as hell" to asl, which sounds like "as hell" when read quickly. Asl is most prevalently used on TikTok and Twitter, but you may encounter it on other social media platforms.

Other variants of asl

ASL can also be used as an acronym that stands for either "age, sex, location" or "American Sign Language." In both these cases, ASL is typically capitalized. If someone asks "What is your ASL?" or "Do you know ASL?," they probably are not using asl to mean "as hell."