Solution: String of typographical symbols, like @%$&!, to represent an obscenity - NYT Crossword

This is the puzzle’s seed entry, a debut that comes from Mort Walker, the creator of “Beetle Bailey” and “Hi and Lois,” among other cartoons. It’s part of a 1980 cartoonist’s glossary called “The Lexicon of Comicana.” Walker defines four types of “maladicta,” iconic representations of unprintable words: the quimp, the jarns, the nittle and the GRAWLIX, which appears as squiggles or symbols like @%$&!?. (“Maladicta” are referred to as “obscenicons” by Ben Zimmer, who’s written about them a few times, and there’s evidence of their usage going back at least a century.)