I'm not sure if this where this question should go, but...
We found a page of rebus puzzles without answers. We've figured out most of them, but there is one that has stumped us. It is in the form of a fraction with the word TOR above the line and TOE under it.
I looked in a book of puzzles I have, but couldn't find this one. Any help would be appreciated.

TOR on TOE = Toronto

Thank you for the answer and for moving the question where it belonged. I didn't notice this page.

I like these type Puzzles they are called Dingbats on our side of the Pond
"Rebus" to me is a British TV detective
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_Inspector_John_Rebus

The older name for these puzzles is Pictograms
Thanks for the New word

Bedstor, I think Ian Rankin named his character, Rebus, after the puzzle: bookreporter.

I was a student of English Literature when I wrote the first Rebus book, KNOTS AND CROSSES, and I was studying deconstruction, semiotics, etc. A rebus is a picture puzzle, and it seemed to click. After all, we already had Inspector Morse (a type of code), and in the first book Rebus was being sent picture puzzles to solve... so I made him Rebus, thinking it was only for one book (I never intended turning him into a series) so it didn't matter if I gave him a strange name. Recently, I bumped into a guy called Rebus in my local pub. He lives in Rankin Drive in Edinburgh. Truth is always stranger than fiction...

The wordrebus dates to no later than about 1600, according to MW.

Well DG..you dingbat, if they don't use the word,'rebus,' in the UK then, it's new to them. Even if they do, or once did, and Bedstor has just heard it, then it's a new word to Bedstor.

I seriously doubt that the English word was coined anywhere but England in 1600.

quote:

I seriously doubt that the English word was coined anywhere but England in 1600.

I'm sure you are right. However, Bedstor thanks us for a 'new word.' If this is the first time he has heard the word used in the context of a puzzle, then it's a new word to him.
Don't you agree?

(PS: I think Alexander the Great used it first, anyway )

quote:

Originally posted by DorianGreyed:
I seriously doubt that the English word was coined anywhere but England in 1600.

The Oxford Dictionary gives 'rebus' as originating in Picardy in the C16. Then it referred to satirical pieces containing riddles in picture form. It comes from de rebus quae geruntur the Latin for 'concerning (the) things that are taking place'.It came to refer to any representation of a word or phrase by pictures, symbols, arrangement of letters etc which suggest the word or phrase, or the syllables of which it is made up , specifically a device, often of heraldic appearance, suggesting the name of the bearer.

It first occurs in English in the early C17.

Dingbat is a 'new' word, referring to a particular kind of rebus puzzle.It is the name given to it by one of our national newspapers.(Don't recall seeing one so named before about 1970). In my schooldays we called such a puzzle a 'rebus'.

Happy New Year! (75 minutes or so away in Britain)

Backing up Fred on this one . All my French dictionaries mention " de rebus quae geruntur" as the latin origin.
Most words with more than one syllable ending in "us" are Latin in origin.

Quick anecdote ; a dear friend of mine passed away a few years ago and bragged about being from true descend from the Romans , his name was "Serge Pellus"

Reminds me of Pontius Pilate's fwend in Wome, in the "Life of Brian"
What was his name? "Biggus er....."