REDACTED

[Baker, John]

        I think it's just a case of an obscure word being tapped to fill a need.  I have to redact documents on a regular basis (i.e., edit them to remove identifying, privileged, or irrelevant information).  If that were to be described as just editing them, it would not be clear without additional explanation, and I cannot offhand think of any other words that would make sense.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Douglas G. Wilson
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 1:52 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: REDACTED


I suppose "redact" = "edit" is taken as more specifically "edit out"
because the word looks like other words such as "retract", "resect",
"restrict", even "remove". A superficial resemblance of this sort is easily
sufficient for the post-literati, I think.

-- Doug Wilson