| 释义 |
▪ I. taboo, tabu, a. and n.|təˈbuː|
Also tapu, tambu, tabou.
[ad. Tongan ˈtabu (see A).
ˈTabu is also the form in several languages of Melanesia and Micronesia, as in some of the islands of Vanuatu, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, etc. The general Polynesian and Maori form (also in some of the islands of Vanuatu) is ˈtapu (tapu), in Hawaiian ˈkapu. Some of the Melanesian langs., as those of Fiji, and some of the Solomon Is., have ˈtambu, New Britain ˈtabu and ˈtambu. Various cognate forms occur in Melanesian and cognate langs. The Tongan form was that first met with by Captain Cook, in 1777, from the narrative of whose voyages the custom with its name became known in England. In Fr. spelt tabou. The accentuation taˈboo, and the use of the word as n. and vb., are English; in all the native langs. the word is stressed on the first syllable, and is used only as adj., the n. and vb. being expressed by derivative words or phrases.]
A. adj. (chiefly in predicate).
a. As originally used in Polynesia, Melanesia, New Zealand, etc.: Set apart for or consecrated to a special use or purpose; restricted to the use of a god, a king, priests, or chiefs, while forbidden to general use; prohibited to a particular class (esp. to women), or to a particular person or persons; inviolable, sacred; forbidden, unlawful; also said of persons under a perpetual or temporary prohibition from certain actions, from food, or from contact with others.
1777Cook Voy. to Pacific ii. vii. (1785) I. 286 [At Tongataboo] Not one of them would sit down, or eat a bit of any thing... On expressing my surprize at this, they were all taboo, as they said; which word has a very comprehensive meaning; but, in general, signifies that a thing is forbidden. Why they were laid under such restraints, at present, was not explained. Ibid. ix. 338 As every thing would, very soon, be taboo, if any of our people, or of their own, should be found walking about, they would be knocked down with clubs. Ibid. xi. 410 When any thing is forbidden to be eat, or made use of, they say, that it is taboo. 1826Scott Diary 24 Oct. in Lockhart, The conversation is seldom excellent amongst official people. So many topics are what Otaheitians call taboo. 1845J. Coulter Adv. in Pacific xiii. 171 As soon as ever the anchor is down, if the ship is not a taboo or restricted one, she will be at once boarded, not by a few, but hundreds of women. 1888C. M. Woodford in Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc. New Monthly Ser. X. 372 The human heads..are reserved for the canoe-houses. These..are tambu (tabooed) for women—i.e., a woman is not allowed to enter them, or indeed to pass in front of them.
b. transf. and fig.
1826Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. 63 (Touchy Lady) The mention of her neighbours is evidently taboo, since..she is in a state of affront with nine-tenths of them. 1891Spectator 2 May 611/2 A..pledge that that Wednesday should not be absorbed by the Government, but should be taboo. 1901R. Garnett Ess. viii. 224 The legendary history of Ireland is..taboo to the serious historian.
B. n.
1. The putting of a person or thing under prohibition or interdict, perpetual or temporary; the fact or condition of being so placed; the prohibition or interdict itself. Also, the institution or practice by which such prohibitions are recognized and enforced; found in full force in the islands of the Pacific when first visited by Europeans, and still prevailing in some of them, as also, under other forms and names, among many other races in early stages of culture.
The institution is generally supposed to have had a religious or superstitious origin (certain things being considered the property of the gods or superhuman powers, and therefore forbidden to men), and to have been extended to political and social affairs, being usually controlled by the king or great chiefs in conjunction with the priests. Some things, acts, and words were permanently taboo or interdicted to the mass of the people, and others specially to women, while temporary taboo was frequently imposed, often apparently quite arbitrarily.
a. As originally used in Polynesia, New Zealand, Melanesia, etc.
1777Cook Voy. to Pacific ii. xi. (1785) I. 410 When the taboo is incurred, by paying obeisance to a great personage, it is thus easily washed off. Ibid., Old Toobou, at this time, presided over the taboo. 1778King in Cook's Voy. iii. xii. (1785) II. 249 The taboo also prevails in Atooi, in its full extent, and seemingly with much more rigour than even at Tongataboo. 1779― Ibid. v. iv. III. 81 The taboo, which Eappo had laid on it [the bay at Hawaii] the day before, at our request, not being yet taken off. 1817Southey in Q. Rev. XVII. 14 This taboo was now to be taken off, by a large slaughter of hogs. 1831Tyerman & Bennet's Voy. & Trav. I. xix. 423 The priests [in Oahu] recommended a ten days' tabu, the sacrifice of three human victims [etc.]. Ibid. xx. 440 A pole, ten feet high, on which was suspended a bit of white stick,..having remnants of the bones of a fowl attached to it. This..was a tabu, prohibiting any body from stealing the canes growing there. 1862M. Hopkins Hawaii 89 One of the great instruments used by both king and priests for maintaining their power and their revenue, was the system of ‘tabu’ or ‘taboo’. 1870H. Meade New Zealand 319 A tambu has been laid on the trees for a certain number of years.
b. Extended, as a general term of anthropology, to similar customs among other primitive races.
1883A. Lang in Contemp. Rev. Sept. 417 The hero Cuchullain..came by his ruin after transgressing this totemistic taboo. 1896F. B. Jevons Introd. Hist. Relig. vii. 72 The very conception of taboo, based as it largely is on the association of ideas, is one peculiarly liable to extension by analogy. Ibid. viii. 89 The irrational restrictions, touch not, taste not, handle not, which constitute formalism, are essentially taboos. 1905Athenæum 21 Jan. 87/1 Tabus connected with animals and plants are common, and such tabus are part of totemism. 1906Ibid. 17 Mar. 332/1 There are many tabous on food which are certainly not totemic in origin.
c. Linguistics. A total or partial prohibition of the use of certain words, expressions, topics, etc., esp. in social intercourse.
1933[see sense 3 b below]. 1962S. Ullmann Semantics viii. 205 Taboo is an important cause of semantic change. Language taboos fall into three more or less distinct groups according to the psychological motivation behind them. 1980R. A. Hudson Sociolinguistics ii. 53 The distinction between conventional and necessary social restrictions is also interesting in view of the strength of feeling which the former arouse. This is particularly clear in the case of linguistic taboo, such as the so-called ‘four-letter words’ of English.
2. transf. and fig. Prohibition or interdiction generally of the use or practice of anything, or of social intercourse; ostracism.
1833R. Mudie Brit. Birds (1841) I. 366 There are subjects which appear to be under the taboo of nature. 1852Lytton My Novel xi. ix, Under what strange taboo am I placed? 1853S. Wilberforce in R. G. Wilberforce Life (1881) II. v. 190 To labour hardest as a Bishop is to incur certain taboo. 1894F. M. Elliot Roman Gossip 281 French officers..found themselves placed in such a painful taboo at Rome.
3. a. attrib. and Comb.
1870–4Anderson Missions Amer. Bd. II. i. 6 Interwoven with the tabu system. 1896F. B. Jevons Introd. Hist. Relig. vi. 66 Before a great feast, a taboo-day or days are proclaimed. Ibid. vii. 78 They remove their hair before entering on the taboo-state. Ibid. viii. 88 The terror..with which he viewed the taboo-breaker. 1897Edin. Rev. July 238 The taboo custom, which is a prohibition with a curse. 1903R. Kipling in Windsor Mag. 368/2 Remember you're a tabu girl now.
b. Linguistics. With reference to an expression or topic considered offensive and hence avoided or prohibited by social custom.
1933L. Bloomfield Language xxii. 396 In America, knocked up is a tabu-form for ‘rendered pregnant’; for this reason, the phrase is not used in the British sense ‘tired, exhausted’... In such cases there is little real ambiguity, but some hearers react nevertheless to the powerful stimulus of the tabu-word. 1978Amer. Speech LIII. 16 It may be that taboo terms form a group which is logically akin to, yet separate from, true slang, since many taboo terms are the only ones available to non⁓academic speakers. 1980Scottsdale (Arizona) Progress 9 Feb. 12 We now have a set of taboo expressions relating to ethnic groups and individuals.
Hence taˈbooism, the system of taboo; taˈbooist, one who practises or believes in taboo; taˈbooness, the state or condition of being taboo.
1885J. Fitzgerald tr. Schultze's Fetichism iii. ad fin., Here is the fetichist become a tabooist, supposing that the description of tabooism heretofore given is correct. 1974Verbatim I. i. 4/1 The tabooness of fuck. 1978Maledicta 1977 I. 236 Tabooness focuses on the speaker and his/her decision about what can or cannot be said in a given context.
▪ II. taboo, tabu, v.|təˈbuː|
[f. prec.]
1. trans. To put (a thing, place, action, word, or person) under a (literal) taboo: see taboo n. 1.
1777Cook Voy. to Pacific ii. ix. (1785) I. 359 He had been discovered..with a woman who was taboo'd. 1779King Ibid. v. iv. III. 81 Eappo was dismissed with orders to taboo all the bay; and, in the afternoon, the bones [of Captain Cook] were committed to the deep with the usual military honours. 1799Naval Chron. I. 305 Having tabooed one side of the ship in order to get all the canoes on the starboard side. 1831Tyerman & Bennet's Voy. & Trav. II. xxix. 40 There are many houses which, having been built, or occupied, or entered casually by him [King Pomare], are thus tabued, and no woman dare sit down or eat in them. 1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. vi. 144 In the South Sea Islands, words have been tabued, from connexion with the names of chiefs. 1896F. B. Jevons Introd. Hist. Relig. vi. 65 On the day of a chief's decease work is tabooed.
2. transf. and fig.
a. To give a sacred or privileged character to (a thing), which restricts its use to certain persons, or debars it from ordinary use or treatment; † (a) with stress on the privilege: To consecrate, set apart, render inviolable (obs.); (b) with stress on the exclusion: To forbid, prohibit to the unprivileged, or to particular persons.
(a)1832Blackw. Mag. Apr. 582/2 The silks and the veils, &c., which some years ago were as exclusively tabooed, and set apart to the use of the mistress as pearls or rubies, are now familiarly worn by the servant. 1846R. Bell G. Canning viii. 218 Slavery was cruel... But it was a sacred institution..tabooed by the consecrating hand of time.
(b)1825Blackw. Mag. XVII. 161 The ‘King's highway’ seems Tabooed to these individuals. 1839T. Hook in New Monthly Mag. LV. 439 There were no splendid couches taboo'd against the reception of wearied feet. 1854H. Miller Sch. & Schm. xiv. (1860) 151 Such of the gentlemen..as taboo their Glen Tilts, and shut up the passes of the Grampians. 1870Lowell Study Wind. 67 That sacred enclosure of respectability was tabooed to us.
b. To forbid or debar by personal or social influence the use, practice, or mention of, or contact or intercourse with; to put (a person, thing, name, or subject) under a social ban; to ostracize, boycott.
1791[see tabooed]. 1822Southey Lett. (1856) III. 305 He has tabooed ham, vinegar, red-herrings, and all fruits. 1850Kingsley Alton Locke xxx, The political questions which I longed to solve..were tabooed by the well-meaning chaplain. 1860H. Gouger Imprisonm. in Burmah xii. 126, I found myself as strictly tabooed as if I had been a leper. 1862Maurice Mor. & Met. Philos. IV. x. §18. 664 Their names were tabooed by Whig and Tory coteries. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. I. xii. 161 You cannot taboo a man who has got a vote.
Hence tabooed |təˈbuːd| ppl. a.
1791Burke App. Whigs Wks. VI. 106 A plain declaration, that the topick of France is tabooed or forbidden ground to Mr. Burke. 1841J. Mackerrow Hist. Secession Ch. xxi. 767 Perpetual bickerings between the favoured and tabooed sects. 1849C. Brontë Shirley xxi. 310 The gentlemen..regarded me as a ‘tabooed woman’. 1906Athenæum 17 Mar. 332/2 We doubt whether M. Reinach is entirely aware of the difficulty and complexity of the problem of the taboued animals in Leviticus. |