Grawlix () 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,
it has been described as the graphical equivalent of a
bleep censor.
Grawlixes typically use "unpronounceable" characters that might be found on a typewriter or computer keyboard, including (@), ($), (#), (&), (%), and (*).
History
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
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".
The grawlix continued to expand its usage throughout 1902 and 1903.[
] In 1964, American cartoonist Mort Walker popularized the term "grawlix" in his article Let's Get Down to Grawlixes,
The emoji represents a face with grawlixes over the mouth. It was proposed in 2016
In dictionaries
In June 2018, the word
grawlix was added to the
Merriam-Webster dictionary.
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.
In March 2025, the word
grawlix was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
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
, 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.
Notes
See also
Further reading
