taboo

Pluraltaboos

Formstaboos, tabooing, tabooed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A ban or inhibition that arises from social custom or from strong emotional aversion.

   The campaign aims to break the taboo surrounding mental illness at work.

   Food taboos kept the villagers from eating certain fish during the rainy season.

   Similarprohibition, ban, proscription

   Note

   English took the word from Tongan tapu, "prohibited, sacred," around 1777, and its b comes from English ears mishearing the p; kapu is its doublet from the same Polynesian root. In English it widened from the sacred ban to anything a society will not do or discuss, which is why it pairs so readily with words like incest and food.

2. 2
   adjective

   Forbidden, especially by custom, to be used, approached or mentioned.

   In her parents' generation, divorce was a taboo subject.

   Questions about salary remain largely taboo in job interviews.

   Similarforbidden, prohibited, unmentionable, proscribed, banned

   Oppositeacceptable, permitted, allowed

   Note

   The adjective works before a noun, as in a taboo subject, and after a verb, often with a strengthener such as strictly or largely. It also takes a to-clause: it is taboo to mention the names of one's parents. Its range runs from grave cultural bans to household rules, as when sweets and fats are strictly taboo at home.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   In Polynesian tradition, something sacred that may not be used, approached or mentioned.

   To the islanders, the chief's head was a taboo that no commoner dared to touch.

   The priests declared the grove a taboo, closed to everyone but themselves.

   Note

   Here the ban protects something holy rather than hiding something shameful, the reverse of how most English speakers now feel the word. A chief's head or a priests' grove is taboo because it is sacred, and to touch it is a transgression against the sacred, not a lapse in manners.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To mark something or someone as taboo.

   After the drowning, the elders tabooed the beach for a full year.

   Elders taboo a stretch of reef every season so the fish can recover.

   Note

   The verb keeps both o's in every form, giving tabooed and tabooing, and it names the act of setting something apart, the way elders close a beach or a stretch of reef. Tabooize means the same; for an everyday rule against something, English uses the plain "ban" meaning.

5. 5
   forbidverbtransitive

   To ban or forbid something.

   The new editor tabooed the word "unique" in every headline.

   Many offices taboo personal calls during meetings.

   Similarban, forbid, prohibit, outlaw, proscribe

   Oppositeallow, permit

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