Redact

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈdækt/

Definitions

1. To prepare text for publication or release by removing or obscuring sensitive or classified information before it becomes publicly available
2. To modify a document by concealing or eliminating confidential or privileged information to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure
3. To alter written content by deleting or masking sensitive data to ensure it is safe for public release and scrutiny

Etymology: The verb "redact" is a good example of a word that once meant something much broader than its modern legal sense. Its ancestor is Latin "redigere," built from "re-" ("back") and "agere" ("to drive, put in motion"), so the core idea was of driving or bringing something back into a particular state. Latin writers used "redigere" for bringing together, collecting, or reducing things, and that sense of gathering and bringing into order carried into the Old French "redacter," meaning to compose or put a document together. English borrowed the word in its older sense of drawing up or editing a text, and for centuries "redact" meant to compile or edit material for publication. The modern meaning, removing or blacking out sensitive passages before a document is released, is a much later narrowing, which is why it sounds so different from its roots. The word is a "piecewise doublet" of "react," a pairing that shares the same Latin ancestry but split into separate English words, one of which drifted into an entirely different sense.

Synonyms: edit, censor, sanitize

Antonyms: publish, release