Comstockery
[kuhm-stok-uh-ree, kom-]
- overzealous moral censorship of the fine arts and literature, often mistaking outspokenly honest works for salacious ones.
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Origin of Comstockery
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for comstockery
Historical Examples
There it is in a few words—a complete and perfect treatise on Comstockery!
It is no exaggeration to say that Comstockery is the arch enemy of society.
Is Comstockery to be our best expression of the most vital matter of existence?
His chapters on the psychology of war hysteria and of comstockery are acute and constructive.
PsychoanalysisAndr Tridon
Comstockery, as we know it, is apparently an organized effort to regulate the morals of the people.
comstockery
- US immoderate censorship on grounds of immorality
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Word Origin
C20: coined by G. B. Shaw (1905) after Anthony Comstock (1844–1915), US moral crusader, who founded the Society for the Suppression of Vice
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for comstockery
Comstockery
n.
1905, from Anthony Comstock (1844-1915), founder of New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (1873) and self-appointed crusader against immorality, + -ery. Coined by George Bernard Shaw after Comstock objected to "Mrs. Warren's Profession." "Comstockery is the world's standing joke at the expense of the United States" [Shaw, "New York Times," Sept. 26, 1905]. The Comstock lode, silver vein in Nevada, was discovered 1859 and first worked by U.S. prospector H.T.P. Comstock (1820-1870).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper