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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > EXPURGATE

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pronounce EXPURGATE:

EX per gate

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connect this word to others:

I have the same book as both a paperback and a digital copy. In the paperback, there's a place where it says "Bug off," but in the digital copy, it says "F___ off."

So, the paperback is the expurgated version: the one where the objectionable content has been removed.

If we take expurgation to extremes by removing curse words and other "bad" things from people's personal correspondence, then it's no longer just expurgation but C__st___ery. Can you recall that word? It means "any kind of prudish, overly moralizing censorship," and it's based on the last name of a vicious Postal Inspector and crusader against vices.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) 

definition:

"Expurgate" has Latin bits that literally mean "to purge out, or to cleanse (bad things) out."

To expurgate parts from something is to remove those parts because you think they're bad and you're trying to make a better, purer, cleaner version of it.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, the transitive kind: "They expurgated the racy scenes from the movie before releasing it to television."

Other forms: 

Expurgated, expurgating, expurgation.

how to use it:

When you need a more formal, more serious, more eye-catching synonym of "censor," pick the somewhat rare word "expurgate."

Talk about people expurgating the bad or offensive parts from something, usually when those parts are profane or sexual: "The school districted expurgated all 219 uses of the N-word from each copy of Huckleberry Finn."

You might talk about the expurgated bits themselves: "The expurgated N-words, heavily marked out in Sharpie, are easy to spot in the books."

Or, talk about the expurgated versions or copies of books, movies, or other materials.

It doesn't have to be profanity or sexuality that gets expurgated from things. It can be anything that seems offensive, inappropriate, stupid, or even just weird to the people doing the expurgating. In extreme cases, you might even talk about people expurgating other people from places; that's a pretty dehumanizing thing to say, because it likens people to dirty or offensive content that must be cleansed out of existence.

examples:

"Except for an apparently somewhat expurgated version of his own conduct, Hickock's story supports Smith's."
— Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, 1965

"[The book was full of] offensive and silly terms of endearment as applied to the Saviour. Zinzendorf admitted the defects of this production, and had it suppressed in 1751, and in London prepared a new, expurgated edition of the hymn-book."
— J. H. Kurtz, Church History, Volume 3, ~1888

has this page helped you understand "expurgate"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.




study it:

Explain the meaning of "expurgate" without saying "cleanse" or "censor."

try it out:

While talking about the popularity of Woody Allen's films, which are controversial because of Allen's reputation for mistreating women, Cara Marsh Sheffler argued:

"Sometimes terrible people make great art... We lose a critical piece of our cultural knowledge – and our ability to recognize who we were so we can actually change – when we expurgate anything tricky or objectionable from the record."

Talk about what she means, and whether or not you agree.




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "That’s What They Said."

Consider a quote from The Office, and decide which of three given terms you can most easily connect it to. You can see my suggested answer by scrolling to the bottom of the issue. But yours doesn’t need to match mine. 

For example, if I give you this:

Kelly: "I talk a lot, so I've learned to just tune myself out." Abstemious, garrulous, or ominous?

Then you might answer, "Garrulous, because Kelly talks on and on."

Try this one today:

Dwight: "PowerPoints are the peacocks of the business world: all show, no meat." Bespoke, ostentatious, or meteoric?

review this word:

1. Opposites of EXPURGATE include

A. EASE and ALLEVIATE (to make something less painful or easier to bear).
B. DIRTY and VITIATE (to make something impure by adding bad things to it).
C. REJECT and REPUDIATE (to refuse to accept something, because it's untrue).

2. According to the Seattle Times, a high school principal in the 1980s claimed to have personally "expurgated _____," referring to them as "_____."

A. every incoming freshman .. fresh meat
B. 300 students .. leeches, miscreants and hoodlums
C. every desk in every classroom .. cesspools of germs




Answers to the review questions:
1. B
2. B

Suggested answer to the game question:

I'd go with ostentatious, because Dwight thinks that PowerPoints just show off and call attention to themselves.


a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
      36 ways to study words.
      Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
      How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
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      How to improve any sentence.
      How to motivate our kids to write.
      How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
      How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

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A disclaimer:
When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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