2006-10-31 18:27:29 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
Among the many discoveries of Captain James Cook was a linguistic one, the term taboo. In a journal entry from 1777, Cook says this word “has a very comprehensive meaning; but, in general, signifies that a thing is forbidden.... When any thing is forbidden to be eat, or made use of, they say, that it is taboo.” Cook was in the Friendly Islands (now Tonga) at the time, so even though similar words occur in other Polynesian languages, the form taboo from Tongan tabu is the one we have borrowed. The Tongans used tabu as an adjective. Cook, besides borrowing the word into English, also made it into a noun referring to the prohibition itself and a verb meaning “to make someone or something taboo.” From its origins in Polynesia the word taboo has traveled as widely as Cook himself and is now used throughout the English-speaking world.
2006-10-31 19:30:59 · answer #1 · answered by Semiramis 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A taboo is a strong social prohibition (or ban) relating to any area of human activity or social custom declared as sacred and forbidden; breaking of the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society. The term was borrowed from the Tongan language and appears in many Polynesian cultures. In those cultures, a tabu (or tapu or kapu) often has specific religious associations. It was a word brought back by Captain James Cook in 1777 after a long sea voyage to the South Seas and introduced into the English language.
Taboos can include dietary restrictions (halal and kosher diets, religious vegetarianism, and the prohibition of cannibalism), restrictions on sexual activities and relationships (sex outside of marriage, adultery, intermarriage, miscegenation, homosexuality, incest, animal-human sex, pedophilia, necrophilia), restrictions of bodily functions (burping, flatulence, restrictions on the use of psychoactive drugs, restrictions on state of genitalia such as circumcision or sex reassignment), exposure of body parts (ankles in the Victorian British Empire[citation needed], nudity in the US), and restrictions on the use of offensive language.
2006-11-01 05:45:09 · answer #2 · answered by It's Me! 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Taboo is a Tongan word meaning 'prohibited'. A derived word containing taboo?? I don't think there is one. It is a noun, not a verb.
2006-11-01 03:30:12 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋