Crossword clues for expurgation
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Expurgation \Ex`pur*ga"tion\, n. [L. expurgatio justification,
excuse: cf. F. expurgation.]
The act of expurgating, purging, or cleansing; purification
from anything noxious, offensive, sinful, or erroneous.
--Milton.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 15c., "a cleansing from impurity," from Latin expurgationem (nominative expurgatio), noun of action from past participle stem of expurgare "to cleanse out, purge, purify; clear from censure, vindicate, justify," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + purgare "to purge" (see purge (v.)). Sense of "a removal of objectionable passages from a literary work" first recorded in English 1610s. Related: Expurgatory.
Wiktionary
n. The act of expurgate, purge, or cleanse; purification from anything noxious, offensive, sinful, or erroneous.
WordNet
n. the deletion of objectionable parts from a literary work [syn: castration]
Wikipedia
thumb|upright=1.2| Thomas Bowdler's famous reworked edition of William Shakespeare's plays. 1818 Expurgation is a form of censorship which involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive, usually from an artistic work.
Bowdlerization is a pejorative term for the practice, particularly the expurgation of lewd material from books. The term derives from Thomas Bowdler's 1818 edition of William Shakespeare's plays, which he reworked in order to make them more suitable, in his opinion, for women and children. He similarly edited Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
A fig-leaf edition is such a bowdlerized text, deriving from the practice of covering the genitals of nudes in classical and Renaissance statues and paintings with fig leaves.
Usage examples of "expurgation".
Whatever we think of Paracelsus, the chief agent in the introduction of these remedies, and whatever limits we may assign to the use of these long-trusted mineral drugs, there can be no doubt that the chemical school, as it was called, did a great deal towards the expurgation of the old, overloaded, and repulsive pharmacopoeia.
Believe me, the secret traitor will not dare to absent himself from an expurgation so solemn, lest his very absence should be matter of suspicion.