Wingdings
Wingdings is a dingbat typeface developed by Microsoft in which keyboard characters map to a collection of symbols, icons, arrows, and other non-alphabetic glyphs rather than letters or numerals.[1][2]
The font originated from designs by type designers Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes, who created three related sets—Lucida Icons, Arrows, and Stars—as companions to their Lucida sans-serif typeface family in 1990 and 1991; Microsoft licensed these and released them as Wingdings with Windows 3.1 in 1992.[1][3]
Microsoft coined the name "Wingdings" as a portmanteau blending "Windows," "dingbat," and "wingding," the latter slang for an energetic party, reflecting the font's playful symbolic assortment.[4][2]
Variants followed, with Wingdings 2 and Wingdings 3 incorporating glyphs from additional sources like Type Solutions' Symbol font and ITC Zapf Dingbats, expanding the repertoire for decorative and illustrative uses in documents.[3][5]
Wingdings drew early public attention for a perceived controversy when the letters "NYC" rendered a skull-and-crossbones, a Star of David, and a thumbs-up gesture, prompting claims of an encoded anti-Semitic message targeting New York City's Jewish population; Microsoft investigated alongside the Anti-Defamation League, found no deliberate intent, and remapped the symbols in subsequent versions to avert misinterpretation.[6][7][2]