TABOO
What does "TABOO" mean?
A social or religious prohibition against a certain act, object, or word.
Meanings
- A custom or rule that forbids a practice, person, or thing as sacred, dangerous, or unclean. Discussing one's salary is a lingering taboo in many offices.
- Banned or forbidden by social custom. Some topics were simply taboo at the dinner table.
- To place under prohibition; to forbid. The elders tabooed the grove after the drowning. formal
Did you know?
- English borrowed 'taboo' from the Tongan word 'tapu' in 1777, after Captain James Cook recorded it on his third Pacific voyage - one of the few English words taken directly from a Polynesian language.
Word origin
From Tongan 'tapu' (and related Polynesian forms) meaning 'forbidden, sacred', recorded by Captain James Cook in 1777 and brought into English as 'taboo'.
Remember it
TABOO sounds like a ghostly 'boo' - the forbidden thing you flinch from saying out loud.
A little poem
A line no one drew
yet every foot stops before-
the unspoken wall.
haiku
What it teaches
Every culture is mapped as much by what it forbids as by what it allows.
Quick facts
What does TABOO mean?
A social or religious prohibition against a certain act, object, or word.
Is TABOO a valid word?
Yes — TABOO is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is TABOO?
TABOO has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does TABOO come from?
From Tongan 'tapu' (and related Polynesian forms) meaning 'forbidden, sacred', recorded by Captain James Cook in 1777 and brought into English as 'taboo'.
What can TABOO teach us?
Every culture is mapped as much by what it forbids as by what it allows.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.