Ever wonder if there’s a word for that cartoon symbol expletive using the ampersand, pound sign (or octothorpe), dollar sign, percent sign, ‘at’ sign and exclamation mark? You see it all the time in printed comic books and cartoon strips.

Seems there is. Over at Typography.com, there’s an entry which discusses this unique cartoon curse “word”, claiming it to be called a ‘grawlix‘.

The grawlix entry reads:

grawlix, n. A string of typographical symbols used (especially in comic strips) to represent an obscenity or swear word.

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.

So now you know!

via Daring Fireball