Filed under: How-tos
HOWTO: Expurgate your Dictionary
OS X's built-in dictionary has naughty words. Who knew? The following gallery will walk you through the steps it takes to censor your dictionary and prevent innocent young 'uns from looking up the proper meanings of these words. You'll need the Property List Editor, which is available as part of Apple's free Developer Tools.
Gallery: Expurgate your Dictionary
Update: Parental Controls are a built-in but optional feature of OS X Tiger. They will be an even bigger built-in but optional feature of OS X Leopard. Those readers who feel that the existence of these controls are disturbing in and of themselves may want to take their concerns directly to Apple, who has built and implemented them in their operating system. Otherwise, non-native English speakers please take note that the post was written in a light hearted tone.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
derek said 7:10PM on 4-12-2007
you can also turn off the bad words in the system prefs
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Leonard Nimrod said 7:22PM on 4-12-2007
@ derek,
Only for a Limited account. This is if kids happen to be using anAdmin account. But shold kids be using an Admin account? I don't think so, instead one should at least have a simple Guest account ready for the times when someone, child or not, asks to use your computer.
I wonder if this can dropped into the root /Library/Preferences for system exclusion of potty mouth language?
PS: I tried to "update" an entry to the Dictionary. I messed it up. Nothing after the after and including the definition I altered would show up. Do you have a How To for that, Erica?
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Leonard Nimrod said 7:25PM on 4-12-2007
I'm speculating...
For the less savvy with editing such files, I'm guessing you could create a Limited account, enable Dictionary filtering and then copy and paste the new com.apple.Dictionary file to the new account.
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mentalsticks said 7:27PM on 4-12-2007
Purging dictionaries is the first step toward burning books. Look at what happened in Iran six years ago to see that this is no exaggeration.
When I was a child I secretly took my parent's dictionary from the shelf and looked up all the naughty words - and I'm still not addicted to crack cocaine. Believe me, this kind of thing is 'mostly harmless' and even educational.
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Matthias said 7:50PM on 4-12-2007
Why would anybody want to do this?
Parental controls by censoring "dirty words" from a dictionary?
What a strange, strange idea.
Did I miss a joke?
Or is the Europe/U.S. bias even weirder than I had thought until now?
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Zygomatic said 7:55PM on 4-12-2007
Holy crap an actuall semi-useful post from erica. I mean comeon I read the weather report and it didn't call for snow in hell.
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Alexis said 8:05PM on 4-12-2007
Using this technique, will I be able to fix this?:
http://flickr.com/photos/hellacutty/234761006/
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CyBeR said 8:06PM on 4-12-2007
Seriously? /Seriously/?
This is the SADDEST thing EVER.
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hamish said 8:25PM on 4-12-2007
Hmmm editing dictionaries to protect the young? Not sure this is a very good idea - not too many steps away from burning books if you ask me! Kids need to learn and will do it by whatever means they can find, what better source than the dictionary!
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Moose said 8:29PM on 4-12-2007
So do you rip those pages out of your paper dictionary too, or just use a Sharpie to black out the "naughty" words?
How sad.
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Jorge said 8:37PM on 4-12-2007
I prefer my kids learn those words from a dictionary than other places... Deleting a word don't delete its meaning
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KeynoteKen said 8:55PM on 4-12-2007
Great, now I can expurgate the OSX dictionary the same way I expurgated Olsen's Standard Book of British Birds... by removing the gannet.
I don't like them, they wet their nests.
http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Scripts/TheBookshopSketch
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David Macdonald said 9:01PM on 4-12-2007
Is it possible to protect our children from other dirty words such as 'evolution' and 'atheism'?
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gbarrett said 9:07PM on 4-12-2007
Well, as a lexicographer who had a small part in compiling that dictionary, I'd say your motives for removing such words are poor ones. When guiding children, the best approach to earthy or coarse language is always a matter-of-fact one. Children need straightforward non-giggly definitions for these words and dictionaries like this (as opposed to ones like Urban Dictionary) are the place to get them.
As a writer and a radio host, I'd say that abridging the intellectual creation of someone else in this fashion is shameful.
And as an IT guy (lots of hats, see?) I'd say this is the lamest HOWTO since someone explained that disconnecting a television's CRT tube was a great way to make a radio.
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clvrmnky said 9:31PM on 4-12-2007
Ridiculous.
You should be glad your child is 1) reading and 2) actually using reference material. If your child is /looking up the word/ they have already heard it, and probably uses it on a daily basis.
The fact that a young person is showing some interest in the form and history of their native tongue is generally considered a Good Thing.
Put the plist editor down and step away from the computer.
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Michael Rose said 10:13PM on 4-12-2007
Epithets! Personalities! :-)
This is something I wouldn't bother doing in my dictionary. That said, if some parents would prefer to keep these words off their Mac dictionary I don't see the harm, either. It's NOT the first step in the eventual Iranian overthrow of America, and I think it's silly to suggest that this is equivalent to burning books.
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Michael Rose said 10:13PM on 4-12-2007
Another couple of points to consider:
What's interesting about the Parental Control feature in Dictionary is that Apple's developers coded it in but a choice was made NOT to expose it in the UI (and now I wonder if it takes effect automatically in limited accounts... hmm... will check on that). This how-to doesn't say that this is necessarily a good idea, nor does it check which other words might get flagged, but it does expose a very interesting development decision by Apple.
Also, this screenshot is just, may I say, 'fricking' hilarious:
http://www.tuaw.com/gallery/expurgate-your-dictionary/211221/
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john russell said 11:15PM on 4-12-2007
I consider this to only be a slight Bowlderisation.
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Barkin said 12:17AM on 4-13-2007
Erica,
In your next post, could you please offer an explanation for how to make sure my child can never order the following books on Amazon, or enter them into Delicious Library:
Huckleberry Finn
Ulysses
Slaughterhouse Five
Harry Potter (any)
The Origin of Species
Oh yeah, and anything by degenerate Jewish authors.
Thanks.
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michel said 12:58AM on 4-13-2007
can someone make me a plist file that blocks all blog posts of this author?
ridiculous and shameful are words that come to mind, maybe she can look them up if her dictionary isn't censored yet by some other b***t
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