bowdlerization
Censoring offensive content
Bowdlerization is the removal or softening of material considered offensive or inappropriate, especially in literary works.
The term comes from Thomas Bowdler, who published sanitized editions of Shakespeare with sexual references and profanity removed.
The word now applies broadly to any prudish censorship: The film's bowdlerization for television cut its best scenes.
To bowdlerize is to censor in this manner.
Removal of offensive content
- redactionObscuring sensitive text
- suppressionForcible prevention or concealment
- blue-pencilDelete or censor text
- censorOne who suppresses content
prohibition · morality · prudery · puritanism · obscenity · taboo · decency · propriety
Shortened form of text
- omissionFailure to include
- deletionRemoval of content
- excisionCutting out of tissue
- cuttingDividing via sharp edge
trimming · redaction · expunge · revision · alteration · modification · adaptation · amendment
Becoming less firm
- sugarcoatingMaking unpleasant seem pleasant
- mincingAffectedly delicate in manner
- circumlocutionIndirect, wordy expression
- doublespeakDeliberately misleading language
veiling · glossing · evasion · equivocation · obfuscation · sanitizing · family-friendly · inoffensive
expurgation
Removal of offensive content
- redactionObscuring sensitive text
- suppressionForcible prevention or concealment
- blue-pencilDelete or censor text
censor · prohibition · morality · prudery · puritanism · obscenity · taboo · decency · propriety · repression
abridgment
Shortened form of text
cutting · trimming · redaction · expunge · revision · alteration · modification · adaptation · amendment · rewriting
softening
Becoming less firm
- sugarcoatingMaking unpleasant seem pleasant
- mincingAffectedly delicate in manner
- circumlocutionIndirect, wordy expression
doublespeak · veiling · glossing · evasion · equivocation · obfuscation · sanitizing · family-friendly · inoffensive · delicacy
- censorshipbanned books, censored, banned, book banning, book bans
- corruptioncorruption, graft, kickbacks, bribery, bribes
- deletiondelete, erase, erasure, cross out, strike out
- editingediting, cut, copy, paste, delete
- prudishnessprimness, priggishness, prissiness, puritanism, stuffiness
- desexualizationneutering, spaying, castration, sterilization, gonadectomy
bowdlerizationfaithful adaptation
Version preserving original's essence
preservation · original text · definitive edition · restoration · critical edition
bowdlerizationelaboration
Development through detail
expansion · amplification · enlargement · augmentation · embellishment
bowdlerizationprovocation
Act that triggers response
transgression · sensationalism · explicit content · obscenity · approval