rebus

Etymology

From French rébus (“rebus (puzzle); ambiguity; word used in an oblique sense; unintelligible remark”), or directly from its probable etymon Latin rēbus, the ablative plural of rēs (“object, stuff, thing; issue, matter, subject, topic”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁ís (“goods; wealth”). The connection between the English word and its Latin etymon is unclear. further etymology The following possibilities have been suggested, but according to the Oxford English Dictionary are problematic: * According to the French scholar Gilles Ménage (1613–1692) in Les origines de la langue françoise (The Origins of the French Language, 1650), it is taken from the phrase de rebus quae geruntur (“concerning the things that are taking place”) which was used in 16th-century Picardy as the name for satirical writings on contemporary subjects containing picture-riddles that were composed for an annual carnival. However, the term rebus de Picardie is first attested later than the word rébus, and so could simply refer to rebuses popular in Picardy at the time. * Alternatively, it could be from the phrase nōn verbīs sed rēbus meaning “not by words but by things”, but this “encounters difficulties in the chronology of the senses in French”.

noun

1. An arrangement of pictures, symbols, and/or words representing phrases or words, especially as a word puzzle.
   I back him at a Rebus or a Charade against the best Rhymer in the Kingdom—has your Ladyship heard the Epigram he wrote last week on Lady Frizzle's Feather catching Fire 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, I.i
2. (specifically, heraldry) An arrangement of pictures on a coat of arms which suggests the name of the person to whom it belongs.
   Coordinate term: cant
   The prior [Will Bolton] used to come out here to hunt in summer and recreate himself, and his rebus—a barrel or tun shot through with a crossbow bolt—is set into the garden walls. 5 March 2020, Hilary Mantel, “Salvage: London, Summer 1536”, in The Mirror & the Light, London: 4th Estate, page 122

verb

1. To represent (a phrase or word) as a rebus.
2. To apply a rebus to (something).