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Borrowed fromTongantapu(“prohibited, sacred”), fromProto-Polynesian*tapu, fromProto-Oceanic*tabu, fromProto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian*tambu.Doublet ofkapu. First attested inc. 1777.
Thep in the Tongan source was misheard asb.
taboo (countable anduncountable,pluraltaboos)
- Aninhibition orban that results fromsocialcustom oremotionalaversion.
1920,Edward Carpenter,Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published1921, page194:It is true indeed that ataboo - in order to be a propertaboo - must not rest in the general mind on argument or reason.
1922, James Frazer,The Golden Bough:So among the Alfoors of the island of Buru it istaboo to mention the names of parents and parents-in-law, or even to speak of common objects by words which resemble these names in sound.
1974,Lawrence Durrell,Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published1992, page213:The sharp differentiation of the sexes in our culture was shaped most probably by monogamy and monosexuality and theirtabus.
1981,William Irwin Thompson,The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page12:For a structuralist like Edmund Leach, the structureis the meaning. Genesis, for example, is about incesttaboos; all the rest is noise and mystification.
2014 May 21, Rey Junco, “What’s the big deal about sexting?”, inCNN[1]:American society has a double standard when it comes to sexuality. We have a puritanicaltaboo against talking about sexuality directly, yet we are fine with the sexual images that pervade television and glossy magazines.
2023 June 6, Kevin Roose, “Why I Can’t Bet Against Apple’s Mixed-Reality Prowess”, inThe New York Times[2],→ISSN, archived fromthe original on7 June 2023:Now, we assume that people who check their watches at dinner are probably trying to avoid pulling out their phones, which would be ruder and more disruptive. In other words, mass adoption killed thetaboo.
- (in Polynesia) Something which may not beused,approached ormentioned because it issacred.
in Polynesia: something which may not be used
Translations to be checked
taboo (comparativemoretaboo,superlativemosttaboo)
- Excluded orforbidden from use, approach or mention.
Sweets and fats are strictlytaboo in my home.
- Culturally forbidden.
excluded or forbidden from use, approach or mention
taboo (third-person singular simple presenttaboos,present participletabooing,simple past and past participletabooed)
- Tomark as taboo.
- Synonym:tabooize
- Toban.
- Toavoid.
