411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Scunthorpe problem
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
Named after the erroneous censorship of the word en Scunthorpe, an English town, by the Internet service AOL, because it contained the substring en cunt, resulting in most auto-censors rewriting it as S****horpe.
en Penistone Penistone (*****tone) – contains en penis
en classic classic (cl***ic) – contains en ass
en cum laude cum laude (*** laude) – contains en cum
en horsemen horsemen (hor*****) – contains en semen
Noun
? 1
The unintentional blocking of harmless online content, such as emails, searches or accounts, by profanity filters or spam detectors, due to a substring resembling an obscene word.
Further reading
en terms derived from toponyms