taboo
pronunciation
How to pronounce taboo in British English:
UK [təˈbuː]
How to pronounce taboo in American English:
US [təˈbuː]
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- Noun:
- a prejudice (especially in Polynesia and other South Pacific islands) that prohibits the use or mention of something because of its sacred nature
- an inhibition or ban resulting from social custom or emotional aversion
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- Verb:
- declare as sacred and forbidden
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- Adjective:
- excluded from use or mention
- forbidden to profane use especially in South Pacific islands
Word Origin
- taboo (adj.)
- also tabu, 1777 (in Cook's "A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean"), "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed," explained in some English sources as being from Tongan (Polynesian language of the island of Tonga) ta-bu "sacred," from ta "mark" + bu "especially." But this may be folk etymology, as linguists in the Pacific have reconstructed an irreducable Proto-Polynesian *tapu, from Proto-Oceanic *tabu "sacred, forbidden" (compare Hawaiian kapu "taboo, prohibition, sacred, holy, consecrated;" Tahitian tapu "restriction, sacred;" Maori tapu "be under ritual restriction, prohibited"). The noun and verb are English innovations first recorded in Cook's book.
Example
- 1. I didn 't think masturbation was taboo any more .
- 2. After the second world war the far-right was taboo in much of europe .
- 3. Taboo topics tend to make people feel uneasy .
- 4. But there may have been another reason - his son 's taboo love affair with american culture .
- 5. Not for talking about sodomy-that taboo seems to be fading fast-but for doubting that women love it .