Well $#!+: A Bleeping History of Symbol Swearing in Books

If you thought this was going to be a profanity-filled post, you are correct, but I won’t actually spell out any words that might offend someone.

First, some background.

I am a nonfiction book editor, so naturally the subject of swearing in books comes up when I am working with, say, a military memoir. Seriously, who doesn’t think sailors have a lock on profanity? Try Marines. Army too. Booyah!

Or books about, well, anything if the author is reconstructing dialogue among normal people. It’s a fact of life: People swear. If you want to write authentic dialogue, in some situations, you need to include the swear words or risk sounding a little too prissy.

Here’s a New Word for You

Some authors don’t want to offend readers by using actual swearing. They want to be sensitive to sensitive ears and situations such as some religious readers. And along came grawlix.

Back at the turn of the century, the turn before the last turn, so 1900s, according to some iffy online sources, comic strip artists started using symbols to represent obscene language in thought or speech bubbles for their characters. Remember Dagwood getting mad at Blondie? It wasn’t until the 1970s when the term grawlix was used to explain the usage.