July 17, 2008
What the %@^!
It seems that using characters like %@^! to represent swearwords has a formal name. This: %@^! is a grawlix. From Hoefler and Frere-Jones writing at Typography.com:A Word For ThatHeh... A big hat-tip to the excellent John Nack on Adobe Posted by DaveH at July 17, 2008 8:58 PM
Is that the sound of a designer waiting for Adobe Updater to complete? No, just a brief response to a question on Docs Populi, via Coudal Partners:�What does one call the use of random non-alphabet characters to indicate cursing? It�s a universally understood device, and is applied in both graphic and textual settings. It is such a commonly accepted staple that I assumed it must already be defined and described � but apparently it�s not.�
But it is! The term is grawlix, and it looks to have been coined by Beetle Bailey cartoonist Mort Walker around 1964. Though it�s yet to gain admission to the Oxford English Dictionary, OED Editor-at-Large Jesse Sheidlower describes it as �undeniably useful, certainly a word, and one that I�d love to see used more.� As the author of the grawlixy compendium The F-Word, Sheidlower�s perspective is unique � and unassailable, if you�re wise, since he and his cronies have the power to immortalize naysayers as expletives themselves. (Don�t laugh: such was the fate of philistine Thomas Bowdler, miser Charles Boycott, and jingoist Nicolas Chauvin, to say nothing of famous typeface designer James W. Scumbag.)
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