The posture emoticon that resembles a person performing a Japanese dogeza bow is “Orz.” Its three characters form a tiny side-view figure: the “o” is the head, the “r” suggests the arms and upper body, and the “z” forms the lower body and legs.
Orz can express kneeling, bowing, defeat, frustration, despair, sarcasm, or grudging respect. The posture resembles dogeza, a Japanese act of kneeling and bowing deeply with the head near the floor. Dogeza traditionally signals extreme deference, a serious apology, or a request for a favor.
The emoticon appeared in late 2002 on Techside, a Japanese website. A user originally typed a symbol to represent a cable and its cover; other users noticed that it looked like a kneeling person. The form later spread through Japanese Internet culture and developed variants such as OTL, OTZ, and Or2. It should not be confused with “o7,” which depicts a person saluting.