I think you may be referring to the concept of KWIC [1], "Keyword in Context", which has been used in text-based indexes for publications for quite some time.
Thankfully we've now realized that "initial noise words" are fine and shouldn't be shifted when sorting.
Re:The Maturing of QUIC
by tialaramex on Monday November 11, 2019 @05:36PM
(#21509658)
Mmm?
No, there are a bunch of places where it doesn't matter as much because digitisation means searching is unnecessary, but when it matters, it still really matters.
In my music player under artists The Chemical Brothers sorts with Chvrches not with The KLF.
Human indexes are still really valuable in reference works, maybe we're getting close to AI making a useful stab at it, but pick up a copy of K&R and compare most auto-generated indices (if you can find a book that even bothers with an index) today, it's night and day.
In 1979 QUIC was software (for IBM mainframes IIRC) that produced a printout of lines in lexicographic order with the twist that the words on the line were shifted to eliminate initial noise words. E.g., THE TWO TOWERS appeared in the printout as TWO TOWERS THE (and maybe also appeared as TOWERS THE TWO).