{{Short description|Technique used to imply profanity}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2023}} {{distinguish|text=The Grawlix, the American comedy trio}} [[File:Grawlix.jpg|thumb|Grawlix in a speech balloon]]
'''Grawlix''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|r|ɔː|l|ɪ|k|s}}) or '''obscenicon''' is the use of typographical symbols to replace profanity, typically using "unpronounceable" characters. Mainly used in cartoons and comics, it has been described as the graphical equivalent of a bleep censor. The first known grawlix appeared in November 1, 1901 story of Gene Carr's comic strip ''Lady Bountiful''.
== Description == Grawlix is the use of typographical symbols to replace profanity. Mainly used in cartoons and comics,<ref name="thought">{{cite web |last1=Nordquist |first1=Richard |date=March 4, 2019 |title=What the @#$%&! Is a Grawlix? |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-grawlix-1690824 |access-date=November 16, 2022 |website=ThoughtCo|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709011251/https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-grawlix-1690824|archive-date=July 9, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Zimmer |first1=Ben |date=October 9, 2013 |title=How Did @#$%&! 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 |access-date=November 19, 2022 |website=Slate|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241220233345/https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/10/the-grawlix-how-the-katzenjammer-kids-comic-strip-pioneered-the-use-of-typographical-symbols-for-swearing.html|archive-date=December 20, 2024}}</ref> it has been described as the graphical equivalent of a bleep censor.<ref name="merriam_article" />
Grawlixes typically use "unpronounceable" characters that might be found on a typewriter or computer keyboard, including at signs (@), dollar signs ($), number signs (#), ampersands (&), percent signs (%), and asterisks (*).<ref name="merriam_article">{{Cite web |date=April 18, 2018 |title=What the #@*% Is a 'Grawlix'? |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/grawlix-symbols-swearing-comic-strips |website=Merriam-Webster |department=Words We're Watching |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025033524/https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/grawlix-symbols-swearing-comic-strips |archive-date=2023-10-25}}</ref> They may also feature other unusual shapes such as spirals.<ref name="merriam_article" /> These characters may resemble the letters they replace, such as "$" standing in for "S".<ref name="merriam_article" />
==History== [[File:First known grawlix.jpg|thumb|First documented use of grawlix, a 4-panel newspaper comic titled "Lady Bountiful is Shocked" published in the San Francisco Examiner on November 1, 1901]] 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": the cartoon depicts two children arguing, with one of their speech bubbles simply containing the characters "!*!-!-" followed by a spiral with a line around it and a series of lines around a dot. The character of Lady Bountiful objects to "such language".<ref name="vox"/>
The grawlix continued to expand its usage throughout 1902 and 1903.<ref name="vox"/> In December 12, 1902, ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' became the second comic to adopt them.<ref name="vox">{{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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250117002058/https://www.vox.com/videos/2019/2/22/18234830/grawlix-history|archive-date=January 17, 2025}} </ref> 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".<ref name=Thompson>[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</ref>}} the term "grawlix" in his article ''Let's Get Down to Grawlixes'',<ref name="thought" /><ref name="vox" /> which he expanded upon in his book ''The Lexicon of Comicana''.<ref name="vox" />
thumb| Grawlixes in a cartoon The emoji {{Unichar|1F92C|Serious Face with Symbols Covering Mouth|size=150%}} represents a face with grawlixes over the mouth. It was proposed in 2016<ref name="Karadeniz">{{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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250321012312/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16313-emoji-faces.pdf|archive-date=March 21, 2025}}</ref> and accepted into Unicode 10.0 in 2017.
=== In dictionaries === In June 2018, the word ''grawlix'' was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.<ref name="merriam_article" /><ref name="merriam_entry">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250306221121/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/scrabbles-seventh-edition-dictionary-adds-500-words|archive-date=March 6, 2025}}</ref> In March 2025, the word ''grawlix'' was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.<ref name="oed_entry">{{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 |at=entry history}}</ref>
==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'', an English word for a sound a person makes when they are angry.<ref name="merriam_article"/> 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''.
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==See also== * Bleep censor
==References== {{reflist}}
== Further reading == {{wiktionary|grawlix}} * {{Cite web |last=Stevens |first=Heidi |date=May 18, 2011 |title=What the grawlix? |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-xpm-2011-05-18-ct-tribu-words-work-grawlix-20110518-story.html |website=Chicago Tribune}}
{{Profanity}}
Category:Comics Category:Profanity Category:Typographical symbols Category:Censorship Category:Cartooning Category:Symbolism Category:Comics terminology