taboo
noun
- implicit prohibition on an utterance or behavior (e.g. killing, hunting, sex, reproduction, funerary customs, eating) due to a cultural sense of repulsiveness or sacredness, present in virtually all societies, yet with wildly varying targets
verb
- make something be a taboo
adjective
- culturally forbidden
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /təˈbuː/ / /tæˈbuː/ / /ˈʈæ.bu/
adj
Etymology: 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.
- Excluded or forbidden from use, approach or mention.
“Incest is a taboo subject in most soap operas.”
“Sweets and fats are strictly taboo in my home.”
- Culturally forbidden.
noun
Etymology: 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.
- An inhibition or ban that results from social custom or emotional aversion.
“It is true indeed that a taboo - in order to be a proper taboo - must not rest in the general mind on argument or reason.”
“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.”
- Something which may not be used, approached or mentioned because it is sacred.
verb
Etymology: 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.
- To mark as taboo.
- To ban or prohibit.
“They lunched, but if the subject of Carrados had been tabooed the meal would have been a silent one.”
- To avoid.