143

143 is a numeronym (a number-based abbreviation) that represents the phrase "I love you." It's because the numbers correspond to the number of letters in each word (1 = I, 4 = love, 3 = you). It's a sweet, old-school way of expressing affection, often used in early text messaging, on pagers, and in online chatrooms, before emojis became mainstream.

Although 143 is seen less often nowadays, it still has its uses. It is still used nostalgically or playfully by older millennials and other early users of the internet who grew up with numeric texting codes. While using numbers in this way helps with brevity and can give messages an old school vibe, it also allows the sender to express their love without suffering the embarrassment of saying those "three magic words." This ensures 143 maintains a broader appeal among shy lovers of every generation 😊

According to popular belief¹, the association of "143" with "I love you" is rooted back in 1894, when a new flashing lantern was installed in Minot's Ledge lighthouse off the coast of Massachusetts (near Boston Harbor). The lighthouse flash sequence was 1-4-3. Some years later (circa 1915), when Winfield Scott Thompson was the lighthouse keeper at Minot's Ledge, his wife told their children, who could see the lighthouse flashing at night, that it was the "I love you" flash. She told them it was their father's way of saying he loved them.

There are over 100 novel ways to express love in a text message. Some of them are recent inventions, but many of them have been around for centuries. Check out our list of ways of saying "I love you."