View source for Grawlix

{{Short description|Technique used to imply swear words}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{distinguish|text=[[Adam Cayton-Holland|The Grawlix]], the American comedy trio}}
[[File:Grawlix.jpg|thumb|Grawlix in a [[speech bubble]]]]

'''Grawlix''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|r|ɔː|l|ɪ|k|s}}) or '''obscenicon''' is the use of [[List of typographical symbols and punctuation marks |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 @#$%&! Is a Grawlix? |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-grawlix-1690824 |access-date=November 16, 2022 |website=[[ThoughtCo]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Zimmer |first1=Ben |title=How Did @#$%&! 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}}</ref> it is used to get around language restrictions or censorship in publishing. [[At sign]]s (@), [[dollar sign]]s ($), [[number sign]]s (#), [[ampersand]]s (&), [[percent sign]]s (%), and [[asterisk]]s (*) are oft-used symbols.<ref name="merriam">{{Cite web |date=April 18, 2018 |title=What the #@*% Is a 'Grawlix'? |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/grawlix-symbols-swearing-comic-strips |website=[[Merriam-Webster]] |department=Words We're Watching}}</ref> [[Leet|The characters may resemble the letters they replace]], such as "$" standing in for "S".<ref name="merriam" />

==History==
[[File:First known grawlix.jpg|thumb|First documented use of grawlix in 1901]]
The first known grawlix appeared in November 1, 1901 story of [[Gene Carr (cartoonist)|Gene Carr]]'s [[comic strip]] ''Lady Bountiful'', with the title "Lady Bountiful is Shocked", and continued to expand its usage throughout 1902 and 1903.<ref name="vox"/> In December 12, 1902, ''[[The Katzenjammer Kids]]'' became the second comic to adapt grawlixes, among many other comic trends seen today.<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 (website)|Vox]]}}
</ref>

[[File:Jay & Trey Cartoon Swearing.jpg|thumb|Grawlix in cartoons and comics]]
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 (magazine)|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" />

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<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}}</ref> 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.<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}}</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 ''[[wiktionary:growl|growl]]'', which is a sound a person makes when they are angry.<ref name="merriam"/> 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 [[$h*! My Dad Says|$#*! My Dad Says]]. The opening profanity symbols (called grawlixes) will be pronounced "bleep," but we all know what it stands for." <br> — Michael Storey, ''The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'', July 20, 2010

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==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]]