Bowdlerise is a term inspired by Thomas Bowdler. It refers to the process of expurgation, censorship by removal, of material thought to be unacceptable to the intended audience, especially children or religious people. Thomas Bowdler (July 11, 1754 – February 24, 1825), an English physician, who published The Family Shakespeare, is best known as the source of the eponym bowdlerize (or bowdlerise[1]), the process of expurgation, censorship by removal, of material thought to be unacceptable to the intended audience, especially children or religious... The Rhodesia Herald of September 21, 1966. ...
Famous quotations are often said to be "Bowdlerised" when potentially offensive words are replaced with less offensive synonyms. This article is about quoting. ...
Examples of Bowdlerised quotes
John Nance Garner- "[The Vice Presidency] is not worth a pitcher of warm piss." ("Piss" is often replaced with "spit.")
Lyndon Johnson- "[Gerald Ford] is too stupid to fart and chew gum at the same time." ("fart" often replaced with "walk")
John Nance Cactus Jack Garner (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967) was a Representative from Texas and the thirty-second Vice President of the United States (1933-41). ... Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908–January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was an American politician. ...
Bowdler was born near Bath, the son of a gentleman of independent means, studied medicine at St.
An example of the Bowdler's work can be seen in their version of Hamlet in which the death of Ophelia in Hamlet was euphemistically referred to as an accidental drowning rather than the deliberate suicide implied by Shakespeare.
This expurgation was the subject of some criticism and ridicule, and although Bowdler was not the first to undertake such a project, it permanently associated his name with the process as a negative example.
His name lives on in the eponymbowdlerization (adjective bowdlerized), to describe the process of censorship by arbitrary deletion of "objectionable" material from a work of literature to "purify" it, rather than banning the work outright.
Bowdler was neither the first nor the last to prepare such "pure" or "school" editions of books.
Bowdler produced the work for which he is famous after retiring to the Isle of Wight.
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