bowdlerize
pronunciation
How to pronounce bowdlerize in British English:
UK [ˈbaʊdləraɪz]
How to pronounce bowdlerize in American English:
US ['baʊdləraɪz]
-
- Verb:
- edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
Word Origin
- bowdlerize
- bowdlerize: [19] In 1818 Dr Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), an English editor, published his Family Shakespeare, an expurgated edition of the plays ‘in which those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family’. This and other similarly censored versions of the English classics led to Bowdler’s name being cast as the epitome of Whitehousian suppression. The first recorded use of the verb was in a letter by General P Thompson in 1836.
- bowdlerize (v.)
- 1836, from Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), English editor who in 1818 published a notorious expurgated Shakespeare, in which, according to his frontispiece, "nothing is added to the original text; but those words and expressions omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family." Related: Bowdlerized; bowdlerizing.
Example
- 1. I bowdlerize my memery about him .
- 2. They decided to bowdlerize the film by cutting out all the nude scenes when it was shown on television .
- 3. If you bowdlerize story of the west wing , it wouldn 't be as interesting a book .