Grawlix

File:Grawlix.jpg]]

Grawlix ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|r|ɔː|l|ɪ|k|s}}) or obscenicon is the use of typographical symbols to replace profanity. Mainly used in cartoons and comics,{{cite web |last1=Nordquist |first1=Richard |date=March 4, 2019 |title=What the @#$%&! Is a Grawlix? |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-grawlix-1690824 |access-date=November 16, 2022 |website=ThoughtCo}}{{cite web |last1=Zimmer |first1=Ben |title=How Did @#$%&! Come to Represent Profanity? |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/10/the-grawlix-how-the-katzenjammer-kids-comic-strip-pioneered-the-use-of-typographical-symbols-for-swearing.html |website=Slate |access-date=November 19, 2022 |date=October 9, 2013}} it is used to get around language restrictions or censorship in publishing. At signs (@), dollar signs ($), number signs (#), ampersands (&), percent signs (%), and asterisks (*) are often used symbols.{{Cite web |date=April 18, 2018 |title=What the #@*% Is a 'Grawlix'? |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/grawlix-symbols-swearing-comic-strips |website=Merriam-Webster |department=Words We're Watching |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025033524/https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/grawlix-symbols-swearing-comic-strips |archive-date=2023-10-25}} The characters may resemble the letters they replace, such as "$" standing in for "S".

History

File:First known grawlix.jpg

The first known grawlix appeared in November 1, 1901 story of Gene Carr's comic strip Lady Bountiful, with the title "Lady Bountiful is Shocked", and continued to expand its usage throughout 1902 and 1903. In December 12, 1902, The Katzenjammer Kids became the second comic to adapt grawlixes, among many other comic trends seen today.{{Cite web |last=Edwards |first=Phil |date=February 22, 2019 |title=How #$@!% became shorthand for cursing |url=https://www.vox.com/videos/2019/2/22/18234830/grawlix-history |access-date=December 17, 2023 |website=Vox}}

File:Jay & Trey Cartoon Swearing.jpg

In 1964, American cartoonist Mort Walker popularized{{efn|Although Walker is often credited with having created this terminology, in 2013, comics scholar Maggie Thompson discovered that Walker was using terms invented by Charles D. Rice, in an article published in This Week and subsequently reprinted in What's Funny About That (1954). Thompson also observed that, although Walker credited these symbols to "Charlie Rice of This Week magazine" in his book Backstage at the Strips (1975), "many of us [including Thompson herself] had assumed [that this] was Mort's joke about an imaginary scholarly attribution".[https://www.comic-con.org/toucan/maggies-world-009-research-obsession-and-obsessive-research Maggie's World 009: Research, Obsession, and Obsessive Research], by Maggie Thompson, at the San Diego Comic-Con; published September 3, 2013; retrieved May 22, 2023}} the term "grawlix" in his article Let's Get Down to Grawlixes, which he expanded upon in his book The Lexicon of Comicana.

The emoji {{Unichar|1F92C|Serious Face with Symbols Covering Mouth|size=200%}} represents a face with grawlixes over the mouth. It was proposed in 2016{{cite web |last1=Karadeniz |first1=Tayfun |title=L2/16 - 313 Emoji Faces Proposal for Unicode v10 |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16313-emoji-faces.pdf |publisher=Unicode |access-date=July 12, 2023 |language=en |date=October 31, 2016}} and accepted into Unicode 10.0 in 2017.

In June 2018, the word 'grawlix' was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.{{Cite web |title=GRAWLIX Definition & Meaning |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grawlix |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-19 |website=Merriam-Webster |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518103544/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grawlix |archive-date=2024-05-18}}

In November 2022, Merriam-Webster and Hasbro added the word to the seventh edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, citing familiarity among younger players.{{Cite web |date=November 16, 2022 |title='Yeehaw, bae,' official Scrabble dictionary adds 500 new words |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/scrabbles-seventh-edition-dictionary-adds-500-words |access-date=February 7, 2023 |website=PBS NewsHour |language=en-us}}

In March 2025, the word 'grawlix' was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.{{Cite web |title=grawlix, n. meanings, etymology and more |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/grawlix_n |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-19 |website=Oxford English Dictionary |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250419230039/https://www.oed.com/dictionary/grawlix_n?tab=meaning_and_use&tl=true |archive-date=2025-04-19}}

Etymology

A Merriam-Webster blog post states that the word grawlix was coined by cartoonist Mort Walker (creator of the comic strip Beetle Bailey) and may have originated from the word growl, which is a sound a person makes when they are angry. Walker coined several words related to comic strip art, although he attributed the coinage of "grawlix" to Charles D. Rice of This Week magazine in Walker's book Backstage at the Strips.

Example

:"Come this fall, CBS will debut a 7:30 p.m. sitcom starring 79-year-old William Shatner. The title is $#*! My Dad Says. The opening profanity symbols (called grawlixes) will be pronounced "bleep," but we all know what it stands for."
— Michael Storey, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 20, 2010

Grawlix

History

Etymology

Example

Notes

See also

References

Further reading