subs. (literary).—The obnoxious matter ‘blacked out’ by the Russian Press Censor. Every foreign periodical entering Russia is examined for objectionable references or ‘irreligious’ matter, the removal whereof is accomplished in two ways. If the articles or items are bulky, they are torn or cut out bodily. If they are brief, they are ‘blacked out’ by means of a rectangular stamp about as wide as an ordinary newspaper column, and ‘cross-hatched’ in such a way that, when inked and dabbed upon the paper, it makes a close network of white lines and black diamonds. The peculiar mottled or grained look of a page thus treated has suggested the attributive CAVIARE: a memory of the look of the black salted caviare spread upon a slice of bread and butter. A verb has been formed from the noun, and every Russian now understands that ‘to caviare’ = to ‘black out.’ Of course as long as the Russian Government permits the entry of letters without censorial examination, any citizen of St. Petersburg or Moscow can write to Berlin, Paris, or London, and ask to have cut out and forwarded in a sealed envelope either a particular article that has been CAVIARED, or all articles relating to Russia that may appear in any specified newspaper or magazine.
1890. St. James’s Gazette, 25 April, p. 7, col. 1. Every one of Mr. Kennan’s articles in the Century has been CAVIARED.
