taboo
ta·boo
adjective
1.
excluded from use or mention
- “forbidden fruit”
- “in our house dancing and playing cards were out”
- “a taboo subject”
noun
1.
verb
Origin
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.
Phrases
- taboo avoidance
- taboo deformation
Related words
Word family
Broader terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.