grawlix

*hopes kmohnkern starts visiting more often*

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.")

mother-@*#$!@#!!!

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

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?

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

Grawlix, Illustrated Graphically for You!

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

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

Grawlixes Past and Present

Gotcha. :-)

@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) :)

I love gravlox...

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

I thought it was a distant cousin to gravlox.

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.

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

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

Wouldn't the plural be grawlices?

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