rebus

Prior William Bolton's oriel window, St Bartholomew-the-Great. His rebus is sculpted in the centre panel, being a crossbow "bolt" passing through a "tun" (or barrel)

A rebus is an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. It was a favourite form of heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames, for example in its basic form 3 salmon fish to denote the name "Salmon". A more sophisticated example was the rebus of Bishop Walter Lyhart (d.1472) of Norwich, consisting of a stag (or hart) lying down in a conventional representation of water. The composition alludes to the name, profession or personal characteristics of the bearer, and speaks to the beholder Non verbis, sed rebus, which Latin expression signifies "not by words but by things"^[1] (res, rei (f), a thing, object, matter; rebus being ablative plural^[2]).

Rebuses and heraldry

Rebuses are used extensively as a form of heraldic expression as a hint to the name of the bearer; they are not synonymous with canting arms. A man might have a rebus as a personal identification device entirely separate from his armorials, canting or otherwise. For example, Sir Richard Weston(d.1541) bore as arms: Ermine, on a chief azure five bezants, whilst his rebus, displayed many times in terracotta plaques on the walls of his mansion Sutton Place, Surrey, was a "tun" or barrel, used to designate the last syllable of his surname. An example of canting arms proper are those of the Borough of Congleton in Cheshire consisting of a conger eel, a lion (in Latin, leo) and a tun (another word for a barrel). This word sequence "conger-leo-tun" enunciates the town's name. Similarly, the coat of arms of St. Ignatius Loyola contains wolves (in Spanish, lobo) and a kettle (olla), which is believed to be a rebus for "Loyola".

Modern word play

A modern example of the rebus used as a form of word play is:

H + = Hear, or Here.

By extension, it also uses the positioning of words or parts of words in relation to each other to convey a hidden meaning, for example:

p walk ark: walk in the park

Pictograms

Three rebus-style "escort cards" from the 1860s or 1870s

The term rebus also refers to the use of a pictogram to represent a syllabic sound. This adapts pictograms into phonograms. A precursor to the development of the alphabet, this process represents one of the most important developments of writing. Fully developed hieroglyphs read in rebus fashion were in use at Abydos in Egypt as early as 3400 BCE.^[3]

The writing of correspondence in rebus form became popular in the 18th century and continued into the 19th century. Lewis Carroll wrote the children he befriended picture-puzzle rebus letters, nonsense letters, and looking-glass letters, which had to be held in front of a mirror to be read.^[4] Rebus letters served either as a sort of code or simply as a pastime.

The rebus principle

Ramesses II as child: Hieroglyphs: Ra-mes-su.

In linguistics, the rebus principle means using existing symbols, such as pictograms, purely for their sounds regardless of their meaning, to represent new words. Many ancient writing systems used the rebus principle to represent abstract words, which otherwise would be hard to be represented by pictograms. An example that illustrates the Rebus principle is the representation of the sentence “I can see you” by using the pictographs of “eye—can—sea—ewe.” Some linguists believe that the Chinese developed their writing system according to the rebus principle,^[5] and Egyptian hieroglyphs sometimes used a similar system. A famous rebus statue of Ramses II uses three hieroglyphs to compose his name: Horus (as Ra), for Ra; the child, mes; and the sedge plant (stalk held in left hand), su; the name Ra-mes-su is then formed.^{[citation needed]}

Rebuses and game shows

Rebuses were central to the United States television game show Concentration. Contestants had to solve a rebus, usually partially concealed, to win a game.

Lone Star Beer has rebus puzzles under the crown caps of its bottled beer, as do National Bohemian, Lucky Lager, Falstaff, Olympia, Rainier, Haffenreffer, Kassel, Pearl, Regal, Ballantine, Mickey's, Lionshead, Narragansett, and Texas Pride during the 1970's and the 1980's. These puzzle caps are also called "crown ticklers"^[6].

The United Kingdom also had a game show which required contestants to decipher a rebus. The show, Catchphrase, was a longstanding Saturday evening show, with Roy Walker as its most notable host. The Australian version of the show was hosted by John Burgess.

In 1998, Granada TV produced ‘Waffle,’ a single word rebus puzzle show that was hosted by Nick Weir, and included premium telephone line viewer participation. Low production values reduced the initial 2 million viewers of the ‘graveyard slot’ to zero within one series.

In Canada, the 1980s children's game show Kidstreet featured a rebus during the bonus round (or "final lap").

Historic examples

• It is reported^[7] that when Voltaire was the guest of Frederick the Great at Sanssouci Palace, they exchanged puzzle notes. Frederick sent over a page with two picture blocks on it: two hands below the letter P, and then the number 100 below a picture of a handsaw, all followed by a question mark. Voltaire replied with: Ga!

Both messages were rebuses in the French language: deux mains sous Pé, cent sous scie? (= demain souper, Sanssouci? "supper tomorrow, Sanssouci?"); reply: "big G, small a!" Gé grand, A petit! (= j'ai grand appétit! "I am very hungry!").

Bishop Oldham's owl-dom rebus as carved in the wall of his chantry in Exeter Cathedral^[8]

• The early 16th century Bishop of Exeter, Hugh Oldham adopted the owl as his personal device. It bore a scroll in its beak bearing the letters D.O.M., forming a rebus based on his surname, which would probably have been pronounced at the time as owl-dom.^[9]

• The 19th century French sculptor Jean-Pierre Dantan would place rebuses on the socles of his caricature busts to identify the subject. For example, Victor Hugo was an axe (hache in French, which sounds like the French pronunciation of "H") + UG + crossed bones (os, sounding like "O"). Hector Berlioz was represented by the letters BER low on the socle, with a bed (lit, for "li") comparatively high on the socle (to mean "haut", the French for high, pronounced with a silent "h" and "t" and so sounding like "O").^{[citation needed]}

• In the U.S., a rebus was used on the Continental Congress patterns minted in 1776 and later on the Fugio Cent, the first federal coin, minted in 1787. According to Walter Breen, Elisha Gaullaudet engraved the dies, using sketches of Benjamin Franklin. The obverse depicts a sundial with the terms "Fugio" and "Mind Your Business". Fugio means "I flee", the sundial means time, and "mind your business" means "do your work". Therefore this rebus read, "Time flees, so do your work."^{[citation needed]}

Rebuses in popular culture

• In the 1958 children's book Tom's Midnight Garden, Tom uses an elongated image of a cat as his signature to represent his name, Tom Long.

References

External links

• Lashon.net has Rebus puzzles in Hebrew.
• an example of using chinese-like characters to write English.
• The online music review La Folia offers rebuses derived from composers' names