Dictionary

bowdlerize en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈbaʊd.ləɹˌaɪz/ (US)
• /ˈbaʊd.ləˌɹaɪz/ (UK)

Etymology

From Bowdler + -ize; named after English physician Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825). In 1818, he published a censored version of William Shakespeare (The Family Shakespeare), expurgating “those words and expressions […] which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family.”

Meanings

1. (transitive) To remove or alter those parts of a text considered offensive, vulgar, or otherwise unseemly.
   • 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!'" / "[William] Shakespeare is altogether different from the modern stuff. Altogether different. I'm not discussing Shakespeare. I don't want to Bowdlerize Shakespeare.[…]" 1909 October, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Ann Veronica Talks to Her Father”, in Ann Veronica: A Modern Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published 1909, →OCLC, § 6, page 26:
   • His critics take alarm only when it becomes apparent that he would bowdlerize Homer and exclude from his state the great tragedians. 1961, J. A. Philip, “Mimesis in the Sophistês of Plato,”, in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, volume 92, page 455:
   • "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 honour 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 favour if he would go to the devil.'" 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘Try your Luck with Professor Challenger’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, pages 23–24:
   • 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.) 2014 January 7, Market Chipping, “Why you should read the Madicken (Mardie) books”, in Market Chipping (blog), retrieved 08 Mar 2016:
   • The bowdlerized version of the novel, while free of vulgarity, was also free of flavor.

Forms

Deriveds

bowdlerizer · bowdlerization

Relateds

expurgate · censor · redact · sanitize · expunge · bowdlerism

Translations (27)

ru цензури́ровать (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · it censurare (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · pl ocenzurować (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · fi bowdlerisoida (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · pl ugrzecznić (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · nb sensurere (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · fr censurer (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · pt censurar (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · ja 伏せ字 (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · ru вымарывать (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · hu cenzúráz (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · de zensieren (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · hu meghúz (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · da censurere (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · fi sensuroida (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · eo cenzuri (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · fr expurger (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · ja 伏字 (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · nl kuisen (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · pl cenzurować (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · pt expurgar (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · pl ugrzeczniać (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · es censurar (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · is (to expurgate) ritskoða (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · nb forskjønne (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · es expurgar (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive) · nl censureren (to remove or alter parts of a text considered offensive)