taboo

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a social or cultural prohibition against discussing, using, or doing something

   For many years, public discussion of the illness remained a taboo.

2. 2
   adj

   forbidden, avoided, or unacceptable because of social custom, belief, or strong convention

   Money was a taboo subject in their household.

3. 3
   verb

   to prohibit, exclude, or declare something unfit for use or discussion

   The committee tabooed any mention of the unresolved dispute.

4. 4
   noun

   in Polynesian and other Pacific cultures, a sacred restriction placed on a person, place, object, or action

   Breaking the ritual taboo was believed to endanger the whole community.

Borrowed in the late eighteenth century from Tongan tapu, 'sacred, prohibited,' a Polynesian word with cognates across the Pacific. English explorers represented the Tongan p with b in taboo. The word broadened from sacred restrictions to any strong social prohibition or avoided subject.

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