Rebusses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of puzzle that uses pictures, symbols, or words to represent phrases or words
2. A visual form of wordplay where images convey meanings or word parts needing interpretation
3. A creative challenge combining imagery and text to form linguistic solutions that reveal hidden phrases

Etymology: The word "rebusses" is simply the plural of "rebus," so the story belongs to that base word. Its most striking claim is a seventeenth-century explanation that the French scholar Gilles Ménage offered in 1650. He traced the term to the phrase "de rebus quae geruntur" ("concerning the things that are taking place"), which in sixteenth-century Picardy named satirical picture-riddles on current events, composed for an annual carnival. The explanation has problems. The phrase "rebus de Picardie" is attested later than the French word "rébus," so the Picardy link may simply reflect that riddles of this kind were popular there. A rival idea, "nōn verbīs sed rēbus" ("not by words but by things"), runs into chronological difficulties in the sense development in French. The most widely accepted source is Latin "rēbus," the ablative plural of "rēs" ("thing, matter"), which lies behind the French word, though the exact link to the English term remains unclear.

Synonyms: pictograms, riddles, visual puzzles, symbolic representations, word puzzles