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

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

Solution 1:

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.

Solution 2:

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.

Solution 3:

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.

Solution 4:

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.

Solution 5:

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.