Suprasegmental: of or relating to significant features (as stress, pitch, or juncture) that occur simultaneously with vowels and consonants in an utterance. For example:
The growing list of annoying acronyms, or initialisms that the Internet encourages in the subliterate — such things as ROFL (“rolling on the floor laughing”) and the uriah-heepish IMHO (“in my humble opinion”) and, most widespread of all, the infuriating LOL (“laughing out loud”) are justified, if such awful things can be justified, among people who can’t be bothered to use words when letters will do, the fastest way to express their exaggerated reaction, which reaction might, face-to-face, be indicated, just as intolerably, by such gestures (suprasegmental features, really, but not to be found in any updated Trager and Smith) as a mouth shaped into mock-laughter, or hands placed so as to supposedly hold from bursting a mimicked heaving-with-mirth belly.
Seen here in a post on Silly Acronyms, And Useful Ones
I have studied that definition, and still have no idea what the word means.
A sign of rapidly approaching dementia, I have no doubt.
Yeah, that word is a testy one or slight of definition. It refers to facial expressions used when saying certain words or phrases, like quoting Groucho Marx by moving your eyebrows and shaking a pretend cigar while saying your lines or imitating or simulating a wink when you’re trying to be sarcastic online (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
Ah. Like making scare quotes with your fingers. I get it.