verb. (colloquial).—To expurgate; to remove anything offensive or questionable from a book or writing. [Dr. T. Bowdler’s method in editing an edition of Shakespeare, was, to use his own words, ‘Those … expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family.’] Hence BOWDLERIZATION = squeamish emasculation of a work; and BOWDLERIZER = a prudish editor, etc.
1836. T. P. THOMPSON, Letter, in Exercises, Political and Others, (1842), IV., 124. Among the names … are many, like Hermes, Nereus,… which modern ultra-christians would have thought formidably heathenish; while Epaphroditus ard Narcissus they would probably have BOWDLERIZED.
1870. Notes and Queries, 4 S., vi., 47. No profane hand shall dare, for me, to curtail my Chaucer, to BOWDLERISE my Shakspeare, or to mutilate my Milton.
1874. E. L. LINTON, Patricia Kemball, iii. Her uncle had not made her read much beside the Bible and Shakspeare, which last he had BOWDLERIZED on his own account with a broad pen and very thick ink.
1882. Westminster Review, April, 583. The BOWDLERIZATION which the editor has thought necessary is done in an exceedingly awkward and clumsy fashion.
