Grawlix

Grawlix (/ˈɡrɔːlɪks/), also known as obscenicon, is a combination of various typographical symbols or other unpronounceable characters that replaces a profanity. It is mainly used in cartoons and comics.[1][2] It is used to get around language restrictions or censorship in publishing. At signs (@), dollar signs ($), hashtag sign (#), ampersands (&), percent signs (%), and asterisks (*) are symbols that are often included in a grawlix.[3]

Not to be confused with The Grawlix, the American comedy trio.
Grawlixes in a speech bubble
Grawlixes in cartoons and comics

History

The usage of grawlix can be seen as far back as November 1, 1901, where it appeared in a Lady Bountiful comic. In Lady Bountiful, grawlixes expanded in usage in 1902 to 1903. However, most of the other cartoons were yet to use this new feature. Cartoons such as The Katzenjammer Kids and Lady Bountiful helped to spread grawlix across other comics and media.[4] In 1964, American cartoonist Mort Walker coined the term "grawlix" in his article Let's Get Down to Grawlixes.[5][1][4] He elaborated on this further in his book The Lexicon of Comicana.

The emoji U+1F92C 🤬 SERIOUS FACE WITH SYMBOLS COVERING MOUTH represents a face with grawlixes over the mouth. It was proposed in 2016[6] and accepted into Unicode 10.0 in 2017.

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.[7]

Etymology

According to the Merriam-Webster post, the word grawlix may have come from the word growl, which is a sound a person makes when they are angry.[3]

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, 20 July 2010

References
  1. Nordquist, Richard. "What the @#$%&! Is a Grawlix?". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  2. Zimmer, Ben (October 9, 2013). "How Did @#$%&! Come to Represent Profanity?". Slate. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  3. "What the @% Is a 'Grawlix'?". Words We're Watching. merriam-webster.com. 18 April 2018.
  4. Edwards, Phil (February 22, 2019). "How #$@!% became shorthand for cursing". Vox.
  5. Stevens, Heidi (May 18, 2011). "What the grawlix?". Chicago Tribune.
  6. Karadeniz, Tayfun (2016-10-31). "L2/16 - 313 Emoji Faces Proposal for Unicode v10" (PDF). Unicode. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  7. "'Yeehaw, bae,' official Scrabble dictionary adds 500 new words". PBS NewsHour. 2022-11-16. Retrieved 2023-02-07.
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