Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A spiral-shaped graphic used to indicate swearing in comic strips.
  • noun A string of typographical symbols, especially "@#$%&!", used (especially in comic strips) to represent an obscenity or swearword.
  • noun A series of violence related images in a speech bubble to represent obscenity or swearwords

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Apparently coined by American cartoonist Mort Walker circa 1964.

Support

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Examples

Comments

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  • $%#$%%$ #$@#$@#$ ^&$^# %#)(@#$ #$)(% @#$#@$@ %$^#$!#@$ @ @#$@#$@#$ #@$@#$#@$@

    August 17, 2007

  • Wouldn't the plural be grawlices?

    April 22, 2008

  • Not according to the inventor of the word, Mort Walker. He called them grawlixes in the plural. :-)

    April 22, 2008

  • Maybe if you Latinised it as 'graulix, graulicis'...

    April 22, 2008

  • DEF: The use of random non-alphabet characters as one word to indicate cursing? It’s a universally understood device, and is applied in both graphic and textual settings.

    July 17, 2008

  • I thought it was a distant cousin to gravlox.

    July 22, 2008

  • Msiii, no one's disputing that (I don't think). But I believe Walker was the first to coin a word for them. :-)

    July 23, 2008

  • I love gravlox...

    July 23, 2008

  • @reesetee: Sure, no one's disputing that either. Never said I'd coin a new word. It appeared in several other wordies months ago, but without proper definition.

    just want to keep it in my memory (=wordie) :)

    July 26, 2008

  • Gotcha. :-)

    July 28, 2008

  • Grawlixes Past and Present

    July 30, 2008

  • Coined by American cartoonist Mort Walker, creator of the Beetle Bailey strip.

    January 17, 2009

  • grawlix (plural grawlixes or grawlix):

    Spiral-shaped graphic used to indicate swearing in comic strips.

    Also, a string of typographical symbols used (especially in comic strips) to represent an obscenity or swearword. You've seen this stuff a million times: &@$&@!!!

    "He does all the Popeye voices, but prefers Olive Oyl's. He has noises for the nittles, the grawlix, the quimps, the jarns. He blows each balloon up before your ears. He reels home, +'s on his eyes, singing the spirl that rises like heat from his head." ~1995, William H. Gass, The Tunnel, p.159

    January 17, 2009

  • Grawlix, Illustrated Graphically for You!

    January 17, 2009

  • According the A Way with Words, it was Charlie Rice who coined the word.

    March 3, 2009

  • Kmohnkern, the text of your linked page also seems to say that Mort Walker coined the word (5th paragraph from the bottom). Am I missing something?

    March 3, 2009

  • He was surely brought up on Mickey Mouse and Porky Pig. He falsettoes in fright, as they do; he zips; he squeals to a halt; he varoo-ooms; he tsks; he thonks. His thonks are worthy of the three Stooges. He does all the Popeye voices, but prefers Olive Oyl's. He has noises for the nittles, the grawlix, the quimps, the jarns. He blows each balloon up before your ears. He reels home, +'s on his eyes, singing the spirl that rises like heat from his head.

    - William Gass, The Tunnel

    May 11, 2009

  • mother-@*#$!@#!!!

    June 11, 2009

  • Reesetee, the page I linked to four months ago (sorry - I'm not a frequent visitor here) mentions Mort Walker's Private Scrapbook, but in the actual A Way With Words show Martha Barnette says that Mort Walker includes "grawlix" in his "Lexicon of Comicana." Then Grant Barrett says that Walker borrowed the word from Charlie Rice. (Grant also pluralizes it as "grawlixes.")

    July 10, 2009

  • *hopes kmohnkern starts visiting more often*

    July 10, 2009

  • AsteriskMan - Grawlix Translator

    March 28, 2010

  • Haha! Excellent!

    March 29, 2010

  • After a certain age...

    May 27, 2010