A few weeks ago, a listener was looking for a term to describe the copy of The Emperor’s New Clothes that he’d read many times as a child. In this picture book, the naughty bits were always cleverly covered up. Thinking he wanted a synonym for “fig leaf,” Martha had offered the word antipudic, from the Latin pudor meaning “shame.” Many listeners responded, suggesting that the word he really wanted was bowdlerize, meaning “to remove improper or offensive material.” This eponym comes from Thomas Bowdler, whose sister ghost-edited The Family Shakespeare in 1818 containing censored versions of Shakespeare’s plays. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Bowdlerize”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Recently, we had a call from Lee who wanted to talk about the emperor’s new clothes.
Now, you remember that story.
It’s about the emperor who walks around in the buff after some shady tailors convince him
That he’s wearing this regal finery when actually he’s not wearing anything.
And Lee had told us that his mother used to read him this story from this lavishly illustrated
Children’s book.
And of course, because it was a children’s book, every page had a drawing of the emperor, but with the naughty bits obscured strategically.
So Lee was looking for the term for that, that his mother had used to describe covering up the naughty bits.
And I thought that the term he was looking for was antipudic, which is an obscure term that refers to a fig leaf or something like that, that’s strategically placed.
It comes from the Latin word for shame, pudor.
Well, we heard from lots of listeners who told me for shame.
They said, Martha, the word that the guy was looking for was bolderize.
It’s the verb B-O-W-D-L-E-R-I-Z-E, which comes from the name of an English physician, Thomas Boldler, who in 1818 published a bolderized version of Shakespeare.
That is, he took out all the naughty parts.
So, for example, Lady Macbeth, instead of saying out damned spot, says out crimson spot.
Oh, no, this doesn’t work.
It’s boulderizing, it’s boring, and just imagine all the other parts that ended up on the cutting room floor.
So maybe the word that he was looking for was boulderize.
Yeah, maybe. We’ll have to talk to Lee and find out.
Yeah, but I want to tell you one other thing.
What a lot of people don’t know is that although Thomas Boldler’s name is associated with that process, he’s not really the one who edited that edition of Shakespeare, the family Shakespeare.
You know who did?
Who?
His sister.
-oh.
Harriet Boldler.
But, of course, she couldn’t be credited with that word because it would be scandalous for a woman to acknowledge that she actually understood which naughty parts you had to cut out.
So yet another woman who didn’t get credit for what she did.
I’m so glad we’re past that.
Right.
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