I could look it up, but this is more entertaining.

[amanuensis1]

I have never actually heard the word "redacted" spoken. I've only seen it in print, and only started seeing it about a year ago. And assumed its meaning from context. How is it said? "Re-dacted"? "Red-acted"? "Red-acted" would make sense, as it could mean you acted on subversive (i.e., red) text. If it's "re-dacted", is it possible to dact something? Is something written something you've dacted?

Isn't language fun.

Comments

[who_la_hoop]

I think this specific meaning of redact must be a US thing - we don't really use it that way over here in the UK. It's more a synonym of edit.

My electronic OED says:

redact /rɪʹdakt/
► verb [with obj.] rare: edit (text) for publication.
DERIVATIVES
redactor noun.
ORIGIN
mid 19th cent.: back-formation from redaction.

redaction
► noun [mass noun] the process of editing text for publication.
[count noun] a version of a text, such as a new edition or an abridged version.
ORIGIN
late 18th cent.: from French rédaction, from late Latin redactio(n-), from redigere bring back.

Sorry, probably too much dictionary copy/paste, but it's interesting :) So no - no 'dacting'! :D

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

So there is a "re-" prefix involved--couldn't that mean "dact" was a reasonable verb? I think I shall start using it just to be mischievous. "Here, I dacted this. Tell me if there's anything heinous in it that needs redacting."

[ellid.livejournal.com]

I've heard and seen it used many times, but then again I used to work in a law office. "Re-dacted" is correct.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I misprounounce things 'cos I use them even when I've only seen them written down. I said "opine" as "open" for years until someone understood what I meant. And "beribboned" as "berry-boned."

[aunty_marion]

I always used to read 'misled' as 'mizzled'. Took me a while to work that one out...

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Hee, my current fandom is the collected books of Rosemary Sutcliff, a British writer of YA in the 50s-80s, and she uses the word 'mizzle' (which means a fine rain, between a mist and a drizzle) in practically every book. Not sure if it can be made into a verb, though...

[aunty_marion]

If it can drizzle, it can mizzle. And does. However, it's not spelt misled. And I love Sutcliff's books myself - I've got copies of most of them...

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, there are more of us! ^_^

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Berry-boned! I love that!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I said it that way from the time I was old enough to read books containing that word until, gosh, seriously into adulthood. And then one day I saw the "ribboned" stem in there and said "D'OH!"

[drgaellon]

It's "re-dact" from Latin redactus, perfect passive participle of redigo (drive, lead, collect, reduce) from "re-" (bacK) and "ago" (put in motion). The root sense has nothing to do with writing - it more means "driven back" or "pushed back" - hence the sense of censorship. The use as a synonym for "edit" comes from its meaning of "reduce" - it's reduced to form, given proper shape.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Ooh, so it's sort of like re-act, which works! I wonder where the "d" came from?

[drgaellon]

The D comes from Latin grammatical rules about adding prefixes to verbs which start with vowels.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

More reasons why I should have studied Latin, it seems. ^_^

[bolboreta.livejournal.com]

It's "re-dact" from Latin redactus, perfect passive participle of redigo (drive, lead, collect, reduce)

Oh, that explains the French "rédiger"! In Spanish "redactar" pretty much means "to write" (in an orderly way... it's like "composing" but for things like essays).

[mizstorge.livejournal.com]

I first encountered it when reading about Canaanite mythology. Scholars in the field apparently use it as a polite way of saying that, at an indeterminate time, some MF or MFs went back and re-wrote the 'official' history/religious texts in order to edit out the parts they basically determined had become embarassing. Of course, the stuff that got edited out is precisely what the scholars would like to know about, so they attempt to fill in the blanks. Which leads to people saying, "Hey there, whoa! Our cherished religious texts don't say anything about that!" To which the scholars reply, "Our point exactly!"

As a consequence, I think of 'redact' as a synonym for 'retcon', which is, of course, a contraction of 'retroactive continuity': a revision of an older storyline in order to encompass recently revealed information.

dictionary.com puts the origin of 'redact' back to 1350-1400, Middle English.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

And when I hear "retcon," I think of Marvel's "No-Prize," if anyone remembers that one! That was my first understanding of literary retcon before that word was around.

[mizstorge.livejournal.com]

YES!!!!

I had to explain No-Prizes to some of my HP fandom friends in the context of a discussion about future editions of the series being retconned to get rid of the plotholes. It's rather a different matter, though, to read that portions of the Bible were retconned. Some denominations recognize that it happened, and deal with it. Others don't accept it, and have all the fun of trying to explain the mystery of the texts that disagree.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I loved how deeply No-Prizes made you think. People would take grammar mistakes and try to come up with legit reasons a character would do that!

[mizstorge.livejournal.com]

The thing I find most impressive in this thread is all the different areas from which we came at this.

What a groovy, geeky bunch of people we are! Someone should write a story, I tell ya!

...but wait, maybe someone already has. I'm thinking Foucault's Pendulum.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

...maybe I need to pick up that book! I've never even looked at it.

[mizstorge.livejournal.com]

Anything by Umberto Eco is worth reading...but, unfortunately, in this one, some of the cool people get killed.

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

I've heard it sung as re-dacted, and just rolled along with that, on account of because I'm a magpie and I do things like that.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I had someone kindly excuse my mispronunciation of things by saying, "That just means you read a lot!" Which was kind of them to smooth over my embarrasment like that.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I've ever heard it spoken out loud either... In my head I pronounce it re-DAK-tid.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

That's how I've said it though in my head that isn't far from reed-AK-tid or r'd-AK-tid, which is why I still think about "red-acted."

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

I've heard it used fairly often in the context of classified documents--this is in the US, usually with regards to foreign policy, military, or police reports. "Portions of the document were redacted before release." "The victim's name was redacted." The general meaning I've seen is "removing portions of a classified document so as to make it no longer classified." The meaning of editing or even censorship is new to me except to the extent that editing classified documents is censorship of a sort.

I don't know when I first heard/read the word, but it wasn't recently and may have been a couple of decades at least. I'm pretty sure I heard the word before or soon after I first read it, because I've never had any question about its pronunciation. I spent two years living on a US military base abroad in high school, most of my life with a parent working for the US government with a security clearance, and flirted with the idea of applying to the US Foreign Service after college, so I would have had ample opportunity to encounter the word. Not to mention Man from UNCLE and Sandbaggers fandom.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I started seeing it in the past year but it seems to be all over the place in Avengers fandom, 'cos of the agents 'n' all!

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

It's funny that you should mention this because I used the word (twice) when I posted the Hawkeye story to AO3...not in the story itself, but to stand in for you and Lunaris (Redacted #1 and Redacted #2) as betas. :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to see it more frequently, and Avengers fandom is one place! Go fig. ^_^

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

I had the exact same issue with the word "recusant." For the longest time in my head I said "re-CUSS-ant" when in fact it is "re-KYOOZ-ant." Like "accuse" but with "re." That's the problem with these weird-ass words nobody says out loud much.

To "dact" something just makes me think of pterodactyls.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

You know what? You just showed me a new word! And I would have pronounced it "REH-kyooz-nt." In fact I'm still likely to mess up and pronounce it that way the first times.