Word.ws English Dictionary

Bowdler

Bowdler proper noun: a surname.

Proper noun

Bowdler

  1. A surname.

Origin of Bowdler

As "de Boelare", the surname dates back to the 11th century, from the name of a town, "Boelare" (now known as "Nederboelare"). Descends from Baldwin de Boelare, who was of a Flemish family and whose surname was variously recorded "de Boulers", "de Boullers", "de Bollers" or "de Bullers" when he came to England, as phonetic variations; this variation appeared later. Alternatively, from the name of some ancient employment; may be related to buddler.

Words formed from Bowdler

Questions about Bowdler

What does Bowdler mean?
Bowdler means a surname.
What part of speech is Bowdler?
Bowdler is a proper noun.

Words near Bowdler in the dictionary

  1. Bowditch
  2. Bowditch effect
  3. Bowditch effects
  4. Bowditch Island
  5. Bowditches
  6. Bowdler
  7. bowdlerisation
  8. bowdlerisations
  9. bowdlerise
  10. bowdlerised
  11. bowdleriser

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Bowdler (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Bowdler.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bowdler. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.