expurgation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the removal of material considered offensive, objectionable, or unsuitable from a text or other work

   The publisher's expurgation of the memoir removed several passages that criticized the royal family.

2. 2
   noun

   a version of a text or work produced by removing objectionable material

   The school edition was an expurgation that omitted the novel's most violent scenes.

From Middle English expurgacion, based on Latin expurgatio ("a cleansing or vindication"), from expurgare ("to cleanse thoroughly"). The Latin verb combines ex- ("out") with purgare ("to purge"). The specific sense of removing objectionable passages from a text is recorded from the seventeenth century.

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