What the #$@&%*! is that called?

Question

Is there a name for the use of symbols in place of curse words, for example #$@&%*!?

Not to be outdone by the special interest groups and their pretentious little dictionaries of coined terms that they would be delighted if the rest of the world adopted (see the various answers below), I hereby propose: depletives, a portmanteau of deleted expletives. — Kaz, Oct 15 '12 at 07:09
Ah, maledicta. That brings me way back. When I graduated from high school, I was the maledictorian. :) — Kaz, Oct 15 '12 at 07:10
Another proposition: these are not exactly dirty words, but usually the order of the characters depends on a particular keyboard layout, hence we might call them qwerty words. — Kaz, Oct 15 '12 at 07:13
I think I've seen it referred to as unnecessary censoring. — sbi, Oct 15 '12 at 08:29
@Kaz: The order certainly disagrees with my keyboard layout. Also, I tend to arrange them "meaningfully", e.g. $#!+ — Jonas, Oct 15 '12 at 14:54
@jasperloy, that title drove a ton of viewers to this site - why change it??? — Kristina Lopez, Oct 15 '12 at 21:36
Here are some suitable emojis (use Code 2000 to see them) for this purpose:
㡪⚓⚔†⚡꩜ #⃣☠

Please add more suggestions if you can! — d-b, Oct 14 '17 at 11:02
related question - is there a "right" way to do this? E.g. is "[SHIFT] 1 2 3 4 5" the defacto standard or is there even one? I tried googling various combinations and got nowhere. — user9645, Apr 03 '20 at 15:24

score 133 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 16 '12 at 20:50

133

I found the term "grawlixes" here: The Lexicon of Comicana.

Grawlixes
Typographical symbols standing for profanities, appearing in dialogue balloons in place of actual dialogue.

I also came across the terms "profanitype" and "symbol swearing." I think I like "grawlixes" best.

edited Oct 16 '12 at 20:50

LarsTech

2,873

answered Oct 15 '12 at 01:15

Dan Hauer

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SymbolSwearing also uses "graxlixes", and also "profanitype". – naught101 Oct 15 '12 at 05:33
17

@naught101 Oh for grawlixes' sake, don't link to tvtropes. There goes my evening... – Tobias Kienzler Oct 15 '12 at 18:07
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Grawlix won't work. Just Google it and you'll see why. Profanitype works but sounds and looks too much like stereotype, even though "-type" is supposed to relate to typewriting. Zairja has the answer(s): Bleep is not a name for !@#$%^&* but rather a spoken equivalent of it, as is blankety-blank (my substantive contribution to this thread). The winner, so far: *Obscenicon*. (Good going, Zairja!) – H Stephen Straight Oct 17 '12 at 00:04
5

@HStephenStraight Can you elaborate on why Grawlix won't work? I didn't find any google hit that did not confirm this. Although the meaning of Obscenicon is probably easier to guess without prior knowledge... – Tobias Kienzler Oct 20 '12 at 12:34

score 50 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 15 '12 at 01:54

These have also been called obscenicons. Several links on Language Log offer an in-depth look at their usage.

More on the early days of obscenicons
Obscenicons a century ago
CALL ME... UNPRONOUNCEABLE

The "word" represented by the symbols could be pronounced bleep:

So people came up with a small set of conventional euphemistic readings for <expletive suppressed>: "bleep", "bleeping", "bleepity-bleep", "blankety-blank", and so on. Of these, "bleep" seems to have pretty much won out, as (again) Geoff noted in his first posting. And, indeed, the IMDB lists the movie What the #$! Do We Know!?* as What the Bleep Do We Know!? So there now is a conventional way for pronouncing the name of the movie.

You might refer to such symbols as "bleeps" though YMMV.

score 17 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 15 '12 at 02:12

These can also be called swear symbols or curse symbols, as evidenced by this quote:

But I enjoy the opportunity to use swear symbols.
(Daniel Clowes, Cartoonist)

Those terms are not as cool as the word grawlix, but they are still in the vernacular, and thus worthy of a mention.

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 11 '14 at 13:41

Comics artists sometimes call them grawlixes and sometimes "swear symbols". Their use is referred to as "symbol swearing".

The closest way to duplicate their effect in speech is to bleep (electronically if you've the means, or just making a bleep dound), since such bleeps serve the same purpose with audible speech in television or radio, as they do in print.

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 15 '12 at 15:56

3

I've always heard and referred to this as "comic cursing" in the US Northeast, but I can't find a citation and also haven't discussed this particular topic very often.

answered Oct 15 '12 at 15:56

daxelrod

829

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 15 '12 at 09:07

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I've always known it as symbolic substitution — but have no idea where I learned the phrase. Interestingly enough, the English language contains more descriptive words than any other language — completely negating the need for symbolic substitution in the first place.

Another word I've seen used for it is symtax, but I prefer symbolic substitution because it is self explanatory by definition.

edited Oct 15 '12 at 09:07

RegDwigнt

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answered Oct 15 '12 at 08:46

Bevan Simpkin

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Citation needed for "the English language contains more descriptive words than any other language". What is a "descriptive word" anyway? – RegDwigнt Oct 15 '12 at 09:10
@RegDwigнt, it is a member of that class of words of which the English language contains more than any other language. – LSpice Apr 23 '15 at 23:27

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 15 '12 at 09:03

0

Redactions? It would be more typical to use a verb — such as saying that the swear words had been censored or redacted.

edited Oct 15 '12 at 09:03

RegDwigнt

97,231

answered Oct 15 '12 at 07:51

Stumbler

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That would usually imply something more like blacking out, or crossing off. – naught101 Oct 15 '12 at 22:50

What the #$@&%*! is that called?

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