bowdlerize

Alternative forms

• bolderise, Bolderise, Bolderise

Etymology

From Thomas Bowdler. In 1818 he published a censored version of Shakespeare (The Family Shakespeare), expurgating “those words and expressions […] which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family.”

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbaʊd.lə.ˌɹaɪz/

• Audio (US)

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Verb

bowdlerize (third-person singular simple present bowdlerizes, present participle bowdlerizing, simple past and past participle bowdlerized)

1. To remove or alter those parts of a text considered offensive, vulgar, or otherwise unseemly.

   The bowdlerized version of the novel, while free of vulgarity, was also free of flavor.

   • 1909, H. G. Wells, chapter 1, in Ann Veronica:

     Mr. Stanley decided to treat that as irrelevant. "There ought to be a Censorship of Books." . . .

     Ogilvy pursued his own topic. "I'm inclined to think, Stanley, myself that as a matter of fact it was the expurgated Romeo and Juliet did the mischief. . . . All they left it was the moon and stars. And the balcony and ‘My Romeo!’"

     "Shakespeare is altogether different from the modern stuff. Altogether different. I'm not discussing Shakespeare. I don't want to Bowdlerize Shakespeare."

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 2, in The Lost World:

     "Wadley sent a message: ‘The President of the Zoological Institute presents his compliments to Professor Challenger, and would take it as a personal favor if he would do them the honor to come to their next meeting.’ The answer was unprintable."

     "You don't say?"

     "Well, a bowdlerized version of it would run: ‘Professor Challenger presents his compliments to the President of the Zoological Institute, and would take it as a personal favor if he would go to the devil.’"

   • 1961, J. A. Philip, "Mimesis in the Sophistês of Plato," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, vol. 92, p. 455:

     His critics take alarm only when it becomes apparent that he would bowdlerize Homer and exclude from his state the great tragedians.

   • 2014 January 7, Market Chipping, “Why you should read the Madicken (Mardie) books”, in Market Chipping (blog), retrieved 8 March 2016:

     Let me tell you about Madicken. (Mardie in English. Or Meg, but that’s in the American translation and that’s bowdlerized and you should never read it.)

See also

• censor
• expunge
• expurgate
• redact