bowdlerize

View more Literature & Language videos

The New York Times made its feelings about Richard Nixon clear in an editorial about his presidential library. According to the newspaper, the censored version of the Nixon archives would have made Thomas Bowdler proud (he's the guy who cleaned out the parts of Shakespeare he deemed objectionable):

"The library at Yorba Linda, Calif., has been turned over to the National Archives after serving for years as the center of bowdlerized Nixonia. The institution insulted history by peddling ludicrous whitewashings..."

Link: The Nixonian Whitewash, Scrubbed - New York Times

Posted July 16, 2007.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

verb

To examine (material) and remove parts considered harmful or improper for publication or transmission: censor, expurgate, screen. See include/exclude, show/hide.

bowdlerize, to censor or expurgate from a literary work those passages considered to be indecent or blasphemous. The word comes from Dr Thomas Bowdler, who published in 1818 The Family Shakespeare,

‘in which those words or expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family’

. Many oaths and sexually suggestive speeches were cut, and even entire characters like Doll Tearsheet in Henry IV, Part One. Similarly bowdlerized editions of Gulliver's Travels and Moby‐Dick have been produced for children.

Nouns: bowdlerization, bowdlerism.

(bohd-luh-reye-zing, bowd-luh-reye-zing)

Amending a book by removing passages and words deemed obscene or objectionable (see obscenity). The name comes from Thomas Bowdler's 1818 edition of the plays of William Shakespeare, which was amended so that it could “be read aloud in a family.”

For a list of words related to bowdlerize, see:

• Devices, Techniques, and Elements - bowdlerize: (vb) censor or abridge by cutting offensive sections

---

  See crossword solutions for the clue Bowdler.

Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - udrense for anstødeligheder, rense for anstødeligheder

Nederlands (Dutch)
zuiveren (boek)

Français (French)
v. tr. - expurger

Deutsch (German)
v. - zensieren

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - περικόπτω, λογοκρίνω

Italiano (Italian)
espurgare

Português (Portuguese)
v. - expurgar livros

Русский (Russian)
выхолостить

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - expurgar

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - censurera

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
删除不妥的文句, 修订, 删改

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 刪除不妥的文句, 修訂, 刪改

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - ~을 삭제 정정하다

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - ひわいなところを取る

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) هذب كتاب أو روايه بحذف بعض الألفاظ‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮מחק, צינזר‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.