The earliest reference to “censor” appears as “one of two magistrates of ancient Rome” (_Oxford English Dictionary_ [_OED_]), who in addition to taking the census (that is, the registration of citizens, originally for tax purposes), supervised public morals and censured the population (_Columbia Encyclopedia_ 2008). The English words “censor” and “census” are from the Latin _censere_, which means to appraise, value, judge, consider or assess; “censure” is from the Latin _censura_, meaning judgment. During the era in which these terms originated, Cato the Elder (234–149 b.c.e.) undertook a vigorous campaign to stem the infiltration of Greek culture (Knowles 2006). According to the _OED_, the first modern use of “censor” applied to people whose job it was to ensure that “books, journals, plays, etc.” were free from anything “immoral, heretical or offensive to the State,” and arose in relation to the theater. That is when the “Lord of Misrule” or the “Abbott of Unreason” evolved into the Stage Censor (c. 1555–83). A related term, “bowdlerize,” also arising out of censorship of theatrical productions, commemorates Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), who published a book of Shakespeare’s plays—with all sexual or vulgar references removed (McArthur 1998). The earliest use of the word “censorship” in the...