tabootabuadj.n.
/təˈbuː/, U.S. /təˈbu/ 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.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > prohibition > [adjective] > taboo
taboo1777
tabooed1791
tapu1832
kapu1933
1777 J. Cook Jrnl. 15 June (1967) III. i. 129 [At Tongataboo] When dinner came on table not one of my guests would sit down or eat a bit of any thing that was there. Every one was Tabu, a word of a very comphrehensive meaning but in general signifies forbidden.
1777 J. Cook Jrnl. 25 June (1967) III. i. 146 As every thing would very soon be Tabu, who ever was found walking about would be Mated, that is killed or beat.
1777 J. Cook Jrnl. 13 July (1967) III. i. 176 Taboo..is a word of an extensive signification; Human Sacrifices are called Tangata Taboo, and when any thing is forbid to be eaten, or made use of they say such a thing is Taboo.
1826 W. Scott Jrnl. 24 Oct. (1939) 255 The conversation is seldom excellent among official people. So many topics are what Otaheitians call taboo.
1845 J. Coulter Adventures 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.
1888 C. M. Woodford in Proc. Royal Geogr. 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. transferred and figurative.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > prohibition > [adjective] > prohibited by social custom
taboo1826
1826 M. R. Mitford Our Village II. 63 The mention of her neighbours is evidently taboo, since..she is in a state of affront with nine-tenths of them.
1891 Spectator 2 May 611/2 A..pledge that that Wednesday should not be absorbed by the Government, but should be taboo.
1901 R. 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.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > prohibition > [noun] > taboo
taboo1777
tapu1833
geis1880
shibboleth1930
1777 J. Cook Jrnl. 13 July (1967) III. i. 176 Taboo in general signifies forbidden... When it is occasioned by paying obeisance to a great personage it is soon washed of.
1777 J. Cook Jrnl. 13 July (1967) III. i. 176 Old Toobough was at this time over the Taboo.
1784 J. Douglas Cook's Voy. Pacific II. iii. xii. 249 The taboo also prevails in Atooi, in its full extent, and seemingly with much more rigour than even at Tongataboo.
1784 J. King Cook's Voy. Pacific III. v. iv. 81 The taboo, which Eappo had laid on it [sc. the bay at Hawaii] the day before, at our request, not being yet taken off.
1817 R. Southey in Q. Rev. 17 14 This taboo was now to be taken off, by a large slaughter of hogs.
1831 Tyerman & Bennet's Voy. & Trav. I. xix. 423 The priests [in Oahu] recommended a ten days' tabu, the sacrifice of three human victims [etc.].
1831 Tyerman & Bennet's Voy. & Trav. I. 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.
1862 M. 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’.
1870 H. Meade Ride 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.
ΚΠ
1883 A. Lang in Contemp. Rev. Sept. 417 The hero Cuchullain..came by his ruin after transgressing this totemistic taboo.
1896 F. 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.
1896 F. B. Jevons Introd. Hist. Relig. viii. 89 The irrational restrictions, touch not, taste not, handle not, which constitute formalism, are essentially taboos.
1905 Athenæum 21 Jan. 87/1 Tabus connected with animals and plants are common, and such tabus are part of totemism.
1906 Athenæum 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.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > semantics > meaning or signification > [noun] > taboo
taboo1933
1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. 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.
1962 S. D. Ullmann Princ. 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.
1980 R. 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. transferred and figurative. Prohibition or interdiction generally of the use or practice of anything, or of social intercourse; ostracism.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > prohibition > [noun] > practical or social interdiction
taboo1833
ban1839
1833 R. Mudie Brit. Birds (1841) I. 366 There are subjects which appear to be under the taboo of nature.
1852 E. Bulwer-Lytton My Novel III. xi. ix. 277 Under what strange taboo am I placed?
1853 S. Wilberforce in R. G. Wilberforce Life S. Wilberforce (1881) II. v. 190 To labour hardest as a Bishop is to incur certain taboo.
1894 F. M. Elliot Rom. Gossip 281 French officers..found themselves placed in such a painful taboo at Rome.
Compounds
a. attributive and in other combinations.
ΚΠ
1870–4 R. Anderson Hist. Missions Amer. Board II. i. 6 Interwoven with the tabu system.
1896 F. B. Jevons Introd. Hist. Relig. vi. 66 Before a great feast, a taboo-day or days are proclaimed.
1896 F. B. Jevons Introd. Hist. Relig. vii. 78 They remove their hair before entering on the taboo-state.
1896 F. B. Jevons Introd. Hist. Relig. viii. 88 The terror..with which he viewed the taboo-breaker.
1897 Edinb. Rev. July 238 The taboo custom, which is a prohibition with a curse.
1903 R. 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.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > semantics > meaning or signification > [adjective] > taboo
noa1925
taboo1933
1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. 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.
1978 Amer. Speech 53 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.
1980 Scottsdale (Arizona) Progress 9 Feb. 12 We now have a set of taboo expressions relating to ethnic groups and individuals.
Derivatives
taˈbooism n. the system of taboo.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > prohibition > [noun] > taboo > system of
tabooism1885
1885 J. Fitzgerald tr. Schultze Fetichism iii. (ad fin.) Here is the fetichist become a tabooist, supposing that the description of tabooism heretofore given is correct.
taˈbooist n. one who practises or believes in taboo.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > prohibition > [noun] > taboo > one who practises or believes in
tabooist1885
1885*Tabooist [see tabooism n.].
taˈbooness n. the state or condition of being taboo.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > semantics > meaning or signification > [noun] > taboo > state or condition of being
tabooness1974
1974 Verbatim I. i. 4/1 The tabooness of fuck.
1978 Maledicta 1977 1 236 Tabooness focuses on the speaker and his/her decision about what can or cannot be said in a given context.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1910; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
tabootabuv.
/təˈbuː/, U.S. /təˈbu/ 1. transitive. To put (a thing, place, action, word, or person) under a (literal) taboo: see taboo n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > prohibition > prohibit [verb (transitive)] > make taboo
taboo1777
tapu1837
1777 W. Anderson Jrnl. 13 July in J. Cook Jrnls. (1967) III. ii. 962 He had been discoverd..with a woman who was Taboo'd.
1784 J. King Cook's Voy. Pacific III. v. iv. 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.
1799 Naval Chron. 1 305 Having tabooed one side of the ship in order to get all the canoes on the starboard side.
1831 D. Tyerman & G. Bennet 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.
1865 E. B. Tylor Res. Early Hist. Mankind vi. 144 In the South Sea Islands, words have been tabued, from connexion with the names of chiefs.
1896 F. B. Jevons Introd. Hist. Relig. vi. 65 On the day of a chief's decease work is tabooed.
2. transferred and figurative.
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 (obsolete); (b) with stress on the exclusion: To forbid, prohibit to the unprivileged, or to particular persons.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > respect > reverence > revere [verb (transitive)] > render inviolable
taboo1825
society > authority > subjection > prohibition > prohibit [verb (transitive)] > prohibit a thing to a person > to particular persons
taboo1825
the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > respect > reverence > quality of inspiring reverence > [verb (transitive)] > give sacred character to
taboo1825
(a)
(b)1825 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 17 161 The ‘King's highway’ seems Tabooed to these individuals.1839 T. Hook in New Monthly Mag. 55 439 There were no splendid couches taboo'd against the reception of wearied feet.1854 H. Miller Schools & Schoolmasters (1860) xiv. 151 Such of the gentlemen..as taboo their Glen Tilts, and shut up the passes of the Grampians.1870 J. R. Lowell My Study Windows 67 That sacred enclosure of respectability was tabooed to us.1832 Blackwood's Edinb. 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.
1846 R. Bell Life G. Canning viii. 218 Slavery was cruel... But it was a sacred institution..tabooed by the consecrating hand of time.
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.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > exclusion from society > exclude from society [verb (transitive)]
seclude1498
refrain1547
ostracize1649
proscribe1680
to send (a person) to Coventry1765
taboo1791
blackball1821
blackbean1829
to freeze out1861
unworld1868
exostracize1872
boycott1880
society > authority > subjection > prohibition > prohibit [verb (transitive)] > prohibit by social custom
taboo1791
1791 [see tabooed adj. at Derivatives].
1819 R. Southey Select. from Lett. (1856) III. 305 He has tabooed ham, vinegar, red-herrings, and all fruits.
1850 C. Kingsley Alton Locke II. ix. 131 The political questions which I longed to solve..were tabooed by the well-meaning chaplain.
1860 H. Gouger Two Years' Imprisonm. Burmah xii. 126 I found myself as strictly tabooed as if I had been a leper.
1862 F. D. Maurice Mod. Philos. x. §18. 664 Their names were tabooed by Whig and Tory coteries.
1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. I. xii. 161 You cannot taboo a man who has got a vote.
Derivatives
tabooed adj. /təˈbuːd/
/təˈbuːd/ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > prohibition > [adjective] > taboo
taboo1777
tabooed1791
tapu1832
kapu1933
1791 E. Burke Appeal Whigs in Wks. (1808) VI. 106 A plain declaration, that the topick of France is tabooed or forbidden ground to Mr. Burke.
1841 J. Mackerrow Hist. Secession Ch. xxi. 767 Perpetual bickerings between the favoured and tabooed sects.
1849 C. Brontë Shirley II. x. 246 The gentlemen..regarded me as a ‘tabooed woman’.
1906 Athenæum 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.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1910; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
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adj.n.1777v.1777