taboo
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from Tongan tapu (“prohibited, sacred”), from Proto-Polynesian *tapu, from Proto-Oceanic *tabu, from Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *tambu. Doublet of kapu. First attested in c. 1777.
The p in the Tongan source was misheard as b.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
taboo (countable and uncountable, plural taboos)
- An inhibition or ban that results from social custom or emotional aversion.
- 1922, James Frazer, The Golden Bough:
- So among the Alfoors of the island of Buru it is taboo 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 1992, p. 213:
- The sharp differentiation of the sexes in our culture was shaped most probably by monogamy and monosexuality and their tabus.
- 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 12:
- For a structuralist like Edmund Leach, the structure is the meaning. Genesis, for example, is about incest taboos; all the rest is noise and mystification.
- (in Polynesia) Something which may not be used, approached or mentioned because it is sacred.
TranslationsEdit
inhibition or ban
|
in Polynesia: something which may not be used
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
AdjectiveEdit
taboo (comparative more taboo, superlative most taboo)
- Excluded or forbidden from use, approach or mention.
- Incest is a taboo subject in most soap operas.
- Culturally forbidden.
TranslationsEdit
excluded or forbidden from use, approach or mention
|
VerbEdit
taboo (third-person singular simple present taboos, present participle tabooing, simple past and past participle tabooed)
TranslationsEdit
mark as taboo
|
ban
avoid
|