Bowdlerizations

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The modification of texts to eliminate objectionable elements occurs through this practice
2. This editorial approach involves adjusting content to ensure broader audience suitability
3. The act of editing written works by omitting or altering parts deemed unsuitable or offensive

Etymology: Thomas Bowdler, an English physician, produced his expurgated edition of Shakespeare in 1807, and the verb "bowdlerize" was coined from his name by the time of his death in 1825. Bowdler's aim was to make the plays safe for family reading: he removed profanity, sexual references and anything else he judged unsuitable for women and children, so the word for his method was built on his surname rather than on any older term. The noun "bowdlerization" is simply the verb "bowdlerize" with the suffix "-ation", which turns a verb into a noun for the act or result of doing something. It reached English through Old French "-acion" and Latin "-ātiō", a suffix that has been attached to verbs for centuries, so the ending itself is ordinary while the stem is a surname.

Synonyms: censorships, edits, expurgations, sanitizations, revisions

Antonyms: uncensored, unexpurgated, original, unedited, raw