Glossary
Commenly used terms when using Second Life.
A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z
A
AFK: Away From Keyboard
ALT - An alternative account aside from the user's main AV. An Alt may be used by designers to check item permissions and other testing purposes.
ANIM - Short for animation
AO: Animation override. An animation that takes over or overrides the default animations such as sitting, standing and walking.
ATTACHMENT: A prim object that attaches to an avatar (for example hair, shoes, weapons).
AVATAR, AV, AVIE: A graphical representation of someone within SL.
B
BAN: Forbidden entry to a parcel of land. Only land owners may ban other avatars.
BLING - A script usually placed in jewelry that causes it to sparkle.
BRB - Be Right Back
BUILD: The process of creating an object in SL. Also some developed parcels are referred to as "builds."
BUMP: The act of running into another avatar either accidentally or purposely.
C
CALLING CARDS: Text fies of information that can be given to other residents.
CAMPING: A method of earning a few Lindens while sitting in a particular chair or dancing on a particular pad for a prescribed length of time.
CHAT: A method of chatting publicly with another resident. Any resident within 20 meters will hear your conversation.
COVENANT - An agreement between a private sim owner and residents who may purchase or rent from the owner. Covenants outline the rules by which they must abide including permission to sell, subdivide, and permissible activities on the land.
D
DEED: Giving land to a group of people
E
F
FLEXI: A specially designed prim to wave or flex
FRIENDS LIST: A list of Second LIfe residents who you have offered friendship or who have offiered you friendship. The list allows you to see if they are on or offline.
FURRY: Avatars that look like animals/creatures
G
GESTURES: Set animations of your avatar, such as laughing or streching.
GRID (The): The structure of Second Life. Linden Labs provide the grid and the residents build the superstructure.
GRIEFER: An SL resident who harasses or pesters other SL residents with abusive objects, sounds or gestures. Griefing violates SL rules and is cause for suspension and cancellation of accounts.
GROUP: An organization set-up by someone in SL. Residents can be invited to join groups.
H
HOME: A location in SL, normally a parcel owned by the avatar, which can be returned to easily. A home location be be selected under the World menu and can be returned to upon login or using CTRL-SHFT-H keys.
HUD: Heads Up Display. An application you can use within SL for a specific activity, such as avatar movements, teleporting to set destinations, or sending messages.
I
IM: Instant message. A method of chatting privately with another resident.
INFOHUB: Teleport locations
INVENTORY: The collection of objects, scripts, textures and animations you have accumulated in SL.
"IN-WORLD": Logged into SL or a reference to the world of Second Life.
ISLAND: A area of land within SL, surrounded by water.
J
K
K - Okay
L
LAG: Delays in-world. Caused by slow internet connections, too many avatars/objects/scripts running all at once in the same place.
LANDMARK: Sometimes called LM. The SL equivalent of an internet bookmark. A landmark allows you to return to a location without doing a search.
LIASONS: Linden employees who assist residents in SL. These individuals all have Linden as their surname.
LINDEN $: The currency used within SL. There are approx. 280 Linden $s to one US $.
LINDEN LAB: Sometimes called LL for short. The company (based in San Francisco) that invented and manages SL.
LINDENS: Everyone working for Linden Labs has the last name Linden. Some of the more popular Lindens include Phillip, Torley,
LINK: Join two or more prims together to form an object.
LOL - Laughing Out Loud
LSL: Linden Scripting Language. Program used to animate objects in Second Life.
M
MACHINIMA (pronounced muh-sheen-eh-mah) - movies made in SL.
MAINLAND - Land run by Linden Labs. Tier fees are paid directly to LL. There are normally no covenants associated with the Mainland.
METAVERSE: Any 3D virtual world on the Internet.
MOUSELOOK: Viewing SL in first-person mode, i.e. you can't see yourself.
N
NEWBIE, NOOBIE, NOOB: A new resident.
NO-FLY: A parcel of land that does not permit flying.
NOTECARD: A text file containing information that can be passed from one avatar to another.
NP - No Problem
O
OBJECT: Something made up of one or more prims.
OFFICER: A member of a group given special rights.
P
PARCEL: A section of land within one region.
PARTICLES - The special effects of SL enabling the creation of fire, smoke, waterfalls, fireworks and poofers.
PERMISSIONS/PERMS - The SL equivalency of copyright. Permissions allow residents to modify, copy, and resell items depending upon how the owner selects the properties of the object.
PHANTOM: A prim setting to allow avators to pass through it.
PIE WHEEL - A multi-purpose edit/information apparatus. A right-click on your AV will bring up a pie wheel with options to edit your appearance, take off clothing, copy, edit and many other functions. A right-click on another AV will also display a pie wheel with limited functions including view profile, IM, and invite to a group. A right-click on an object or prim may allow you to edit or copy the item
POOFER - A particle emitter. These may be seen as snowflakes, falling leaves, and special items such as hearts floating around an AV as it moves.
POSING STAND - An object that an AV "sits" on (in the standing position) to adjust prim attachments such as hair and clothing.
PREFERENCES: A set of configurables to choose how the Second LIfe viewed looks, sounds and feels to the user.
PRIM, PRIMITIVE: A basic building block shape used to create objects. Prims may be manipulated, twisted, cut and linked. Everything in Second Life is constructed from prims.
PRIVATE SIM/PRIVATE ESTATE - Land purchased and owned by an individual or entity other than LL. Private sim owners pay tier fees to LL. Private sim owners may dictate sim activities, ban AVs, create covenants and also divide and rent or sell their land to others. Individuals buying or leasing on a private sim pay tier to the private sim owner rather than to LL.
PROFILE - An area displaying information about your AV including rez date, groups, and favorites. An AV may edit parts of the profile and reveal as much or as little information as desired. Other residents may view a profile through Search -> People or by right clicking on an AV and selecting Profile from the pie wheel.
Q
R
REGION: A major landmass within SL, controlled by a SIM.
RESIDENT: Someone who has membership (an avatar) in Second Life
REZ/REZZING: To bring a prim or object into existence (the 'resolution' of an image).
RP - Role Play - SL residents who RP assume the characteristics, language and even clothing of a particular place, era, or culture. Those who RP stay IC (in character) and rarely go OOC (out of character). When they do so, they will use double parenthesis around their chat phrase to so indicate. RP sims have been created for residents who want to become wild west cowboys, Victorian ladies and gentlemen, medieval knights and dragons, and futuristic beings and robots.
RL: Real Life
S
SANDBOX: A public space available for anyone to build on. Objects built on sandboxes and not taken by the owner will be automatically returned to them after a given amount of time (be sure to read each sandbox's rules).
SCRIPT - Program used to animate objects in Second Life. Also see LSL.
SCULPTURED PRIM/SCULPTIE - A prim whose shape is determined by a texture created using an external 3D software package such as Blender, Wings and Rokuro. Created textures are uploaded to SL and applied to the prim. Sculpties allow builders to create more complex shapes than currently possible with basic prims.
SHOUT: Words typed in chat that are visible to everyone within 100 meters.
SIM, SIMULATOR: A region of landmass that makes up Second Life.
SKYBOX - A box in the sky, usually positioned 500-700 meters up. Skyboxes are created for privacy or a quiet place to work on building skills.
SL: Short for Second Life
SLEMINAR: A seminar hosted within SL.
SLT: Second Life Time. Because Second Life is the product of Linden Labs who is based in California, time in Second Life is the same as PST (Pacific Standard Time) or PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) depending upon the time of year.
SLURL: A Second Life URL. People can be transported when a website directly into SL by clicking a SLURL.
T
TELEPORT: Move instantly from one area to another. Sometimes abbreviated to TP.
TEXTURE: An image that covers prims to give them a look of authenticity.
TIER: The monthly fee paid by a landowner.
TP me: "Please teleport me to your location".
TY - Thank You
U
V
VENDOR: A scripted objects that sells things such as clothing, hair, and other objects.
W
X
Y
YW - You're Welcome