Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Taboo |
TabooAdjective1. Excluded from use or mention; "forbidden fruit"; "in our house dancing and playing cards were out"; "a taboo subject". 2. Forbidden to profane use especially in South Pacific islands. Noun1. A prejudice (especially in Polynesia and other South Pacific islands) that prohibits the use or mention of something because of its sacred nature. 2. An inhibition or ban resulting from social custom or emotional aversion. Verb1. Declare as sacred and forbidden. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "taboo" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1896. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Health | Any negative tradition or behavior that is generally regarded as harmful to social welfare and forbidden within a cultural or social group. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
No taboo is known to be universal, but some (such as incest taboo) occur in the majority of societies. Taboos may serve many functions, and often remain in effect after the original reason behind them has expired. Some have argued that taboos therefore reveal the history of societies when other records are lacking.
Taboos often extend to cover discussing taboo topics. This can result in taboo deformation or replacement of taboo words. The word "taboo" is of Polynesian origin and its first recorded instance of use is by James Cook in 1771. Marvin Harris, front figure of cultural materialism, endeavoured to explain taboos as a consequence of the ecologic and economic conditions of their societies.
See also: bias, censorship, Natural law, prohibition, sacred, prejudice
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Taboo."
Synonyms: TabooSynonyms: forbidden (adj), out(p) (adj), prohibited (adj), proscribed (adj), verboten (adj), tabu (n). (additional references) |
| Synonym by domain: tabooed (social sciences). |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Prohibition | Verb: prohibit, inhibit; forbid, put one's veto upon, disallow, enjoin, ban, outlaw, taboo, proscribe, estop; bar; debar; (hinder), forefend. |
Noun: prohibition, inhibition; veto, disallowance; interdict, interdiction; injunction, estoppel; embargo, ban, taboo, proscription; index expurgatorius; restriction; (restraint); hindrance; forbidden fruit; Maine law. | |
Keep in, keep within bounds; restrain; cohibit, withhold, limit, circumscribe, clip the wings of, restrict; interdict, taboo; put under an interdiction, place under an interdiction; put under the ban, place under the ban; proscribe; exclude, shut out; shut the door, bolt the door, show the door; warn off; dash the cup from one's lips; forbid the banns. | |
Sorcery | Verb: practice sorcery;Noun: cast a nativity, conjure, exorcise, charm, enchant; bewitch, bedevil; hoodoo, voodoo; entrance, mesmerize, magnetize; fascinate; (influence); taboo; wave a wand; rub the ring, rub the lamp; cast a spell; call up spirits, call up spirits from the vasty deep; raise spirits from the dead. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Taboo |
| English words defined with "taboo": blank ♦ forbidden ♦ out ♦ prohibited, proscribed ♦ Tabooed, Tabooing, tabu ♦ verboten. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "taboo": gripenet ♦ JESTER ♦ taboo frequency. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | That ultimate taboo. It doesn't exist outside our own minds. (Insomnia; writing credit: Nikolaj Frobenius; Erik Skjoldbjærg) | |
Lyrics | Giving me something that's taboo ("The Sweetest Taboo"; performing artist: Sade) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Taboo (2002) Momento mori Taboo (1996) Taboo 15 (1995) Ultimate Taboo (1995) Taboo 14: Kissing Cousins (1995) | |
Song Titles | The Sweetest Taboo (performing artist: Sade) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Health education and psychiatric counseling work- previously taboo in Chinese HCS- will be emphasized. (references) | |
Children | Zimbabwe | The number of incidents of child abuse, including incest (long a taboo), infanticide, child abandonment, and rape increased during the year. (references) |
Civil Liberties | Morocco | Newspapers and weeklies from across the political spectrum, from Socialist to nationalist to Islamist, published freely, and the Government continued to permit extensive coverage of formerly taboo topics during the year. (references) |
Pakistan | Dramas and documentaries on previously taboo subjects, including corruption, social privilege, narcotics, violence against women, and female inequality, are broadcast on television; however, some sensitive series have been canceled before being broadcast. (references) | |
Political Economy | Morocco | The Government's record on press freedom remained inconsistent during the year, although it improved over 2000. While the Government permitted extensive coverage of formerly taboo topics, it systematically restricted press freedom on several specific topics that it considered sensitive, and on which journalists continued to practice self-censorship, including criticism of the Monarchy, Morocco's claim to the Western Sahara, and the sanctity of Islam. (references) |
Women | El Salvador | Once a taboo social subject, domestic violence increasingly is being recognized publicly and has become a topic for national debate. (references) |
Azerbaijan | There is a law against rape, which makes rape punishable by up to 15 years in prison; however, many incidents go unreported; such subjects are taboo in society. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Morocco | The conference included frank discussion of a subject that is commonly taboo. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | JESTER, n. An officer formerly attached to a king's household, whose business it was to amuse the court by ludicrous actions and utterances, the absurdity being attested by his motley costume. The king himself being attired with dignity, it took the world some centuries to discover that his own conduct and decrees were sufficiently ridiculous for the amusement not only of his court but of all mankind. The jester was commonly called a fool, but the poets and romancers have ever delighted to represent him as a singularly wise and witty person. In the circus of to-day the melancholy ghost of the court fool effects the dejection of humbler audiences with the same jests wherewith in life he gloomed the marble hall, panged the patrician sense of humor and tapped the tank of royal tears. The widow-queen of Portugal Had an audacious jester Who entered the confessional Disguised, and there confessed her. "Father," she said, "thine ear bend down -- My sins are more than scarlet: I love my fool -- blaspheming clown, And common, base-born varlet." "Daughter," the mimic priest replied, "That sin, indeed, is awful: The church's pardon is denied To love that is unlawful. "But since thy stubborn heart will be For him forever pleading, Thou'dst better make him, by decree, A man of birth and breeding." She made the fool a duke, in hope With Heaven's taboo to palter; Then told a priest, who told the Pope, Who damned her from the altar! Barel Dort |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Taboo" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 56.19% of the time. "Taboo" is used about 194 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 56.19% | 109 | 31,132 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 43.81% | 85 | 35,870 |
| Total | 100.00% | 194 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "taboo": put under a taboo. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "taboo": taboo-loaded, taboo-ridden. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
taboo | 1,677 |
super taboo | 653 |
taboo story | 369 |
taboo sex | 302 |
taboo sex story | 144 |
family taboo | 137 |
insertion taboo | 119 |
extreme super taboo | 111 |
taboo movie | 99 |
kay parker taboo | 95 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "taboo"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | tabu, ndalim (arrest, attachment, ban, cessation, defence, detention, disallowance, embargo, Forbiddance, halt, inhibition, interdict, interdiction, juju, lid, negative, prohibition, stay, stop, stoppage, stopping). (various references) | |
Arabic | منع (averting, ban, banning, bar, barring, block, debar, deny, deprive, deter, estop, exclude, forbade, forbid, forbiddance, forbidding, foreclose, hinder, hindering, hold back, immunize, inhibit, interdict, interdiction, keep from, obstruct, obstruction, obviation, preclude, prevent, preventing, prevention, prohibit, prohibition, proscription, restrain from, stop, veto, ward off, withhold), حظر (ban, bar, debar, embargo, enjoin, forbade, forbid, forbiddance, forewarn, kill, outlaw, prohibit, prohibition, proscription, suppress), تحريم (ban, deprival, derequisition, interdict, outlawry, proscription, veto), تحظير, عزل (cut off, depose, deposition, disengage, displacement, excommunicate, excommunication, gaol, insulate, isolate, isolation, jail, recall, relegate, seclude, segregate, segregation, sequester), المحرم (prohibited), الحرام. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | свещен (blessed, holy, sacred, sacrosanct, sainted, sanctimonious), слагам под възбрана, табу (tabu), който не бива да се употребява, който не бива да се споменава (unmentionable), който не бива да се докосва, остракизъм (ostracism, outlawry), отбягвам (avoid, dodge, elude, eschew, evade, fence, give a wide berth, put by, sheer, shrink back, shrink from, shun, sidestep), нещо недопустимо да се върши, нещо забранено да се споменава, нещо забранено да се върши, неприкосновен предмет, запрещение (injunction, interdict, prohibition, proscription, stop, veto), избягван. (various references) | |
Chinese | 違礙 (prohibition), 禁忌. (various references) | |
Czech | tabuový (tabu), tabu (tabu), zákaz (ban, blackout, estoppel, inhibition, interdict, prohibition, tabu). (various references) | |
Danish | tabu. (various references) | |
Dutch | taboe. (various references) | |
Farsi | منع یانهی مذهبی , حرام شمرده , حرام (Illegal, Unlawful). (various references) | |
Finnish | tabu. (various references) | |
French | tabou. (various references) | |
German | Tabu (tabu, unmentionable), unantastbar (inviolable, sacrosanct, unassailable, unimpeachable, untouchable). (various references) | |
Greek | ταμπού (sacred cow, tabu). (various references) | |
Hebrew | ל"חרים (ban, boycott, condemn, excommunicate), חרם (anathema, ban, embargo, excommunication), אסור (ban, banned, barred, embargo, forbidden, illicit, imprisoned, injunction, prohibited, proscription), טבו. (various references) | |
Hungarian | tabu. (various references) | |
Indonesian | tabu (touch-me-not), risih, mentabukan. (various references) | |
Italian | vietato (barred, forbidden), tabù. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 禁忌 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | き"もつ (forbidden thing), き"き (article made of gold, gold plate, gold-brocade flag, Kinki, pennant, pleasure), いみ (abstinence, meaning, religious purification, significance), "はっと (contraband, strictly forbidden), タブー . (various references) | |
Manx | tarmestey (ban, block, blocking, check, checkmate; stonewaller; discouragement, chip in, cross, cross annoy, debar, encroachment, foil, frustrate, frustration, interdict, interdiction, interference, proscribe, proscription, thwart), guess (soothsayer, spell), cur fo guess. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | abootay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | tabu (jujube, sacred cow). (various references) | |
Romanian | tabu (tabu), opri (abate, abstain, arrest, balk, bar, baulk, break, bring to, bring to a stop, call off, circumvent, clog, collar, contain, curb, cut off, deflate, delay, discontinue, end, estop, forbear, forbid, foreclose, halt, hinder, hold, inhibit, interdict, keep back, phase out, prohibit, pull up, put a stopper on, put out, quench, restrain, retain, shut out, snag, staunch, stay, stem, stop, strangle, subside, withhold), interzis (forbidden, illicit), interzice (ban, bar, disallow, enjoin, forbid, interdict, proclaim, prohibit, proscribe, veto), intangibil (impalpable, intangible, tabu), declara tabu. (various references) | |
Russian | священный (blessed, sacramental, sacred, sacrosanct, untouchable), табу (ju-ju, no-no), запрещение (ban, defence, defense, disallowance, inhibition, interdict, interdiction, prohibition, proscription, suppression). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | tabu (ju-ju), zabranjen (forbidden, illicit, ineffable, prohibited, unallowed). (various references) | |
Spanish | tabú (tabu). (various references) | |
Swedish | tabu (tabu). (various references) | |
Thai | ห้าม (ban, forbid), ซึ่งต้องห้าม, ข้อห้าม. (various references) | |
Turkish | tabulaştırmak (put under a taboo, tabu), tabu (tabu), yasaklanmış şey, yasaklamak (ban, bar, call off, clamp the lid on smth., debar, embargo, enjoin, forbid, imprison, inhibit, interdict, outlaw, prohibit, proscribe, put a ban on, put one's foot down, put the lid on smth., put under a ban, put under a taboo, tabu), yasak (ban, don't, forbidden, illicit, impermissible, interdict, no, prohibition, proscriptive, restricted, restriction, tabu, under a ban), konuşulmasını yasaklamak (put under a taboo), konuşulamaz. (various references) | |
Ukranian | священний (blessed, hieratic, holy, sacramental, tabu), табу (tabu), накладати табу (tabu), забороняти (bar, disallow, embar, enjoin, forbid, inhibit, interdict, proclaim, prohibit, provide, suppress, tabu, veto), заборонений (forbidden, prohibited, suppressed, tabu), піддавати остракізму (ostracize, tabu). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | sự kiêng kỵ (tabu), bị cấm kỵ (tabu), bị cấm đoán (tabu), điều cấm kỵ (tabu). (various references) | |
Welsh | diofrydig (ban, devote, vow), diofryd (ban, vow). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sumerian | 3100 BCE-2500 BCE | azag. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | pura, puram, puras, pure, purior, purissimam, purissimas, purissimi, purissimo, purissimum, puritatem, puro, purum, purus, religio, religione, religionem, religioni, religionis. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "taboo": tabooed, tabooing, tabooley, tabooleys, taboos. (additional references) | |
| |
"Taboo" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Aboo, Atibu, atoo, Atubo, Kaboo, Kabooz, mabou, Mahboob, Maqbool, Naboho, saboo, Shabonov, taao, tabal, tabbo, Tabboo, Tabito, tabo, taboot, tabot, tabut, tafo, taho, tahoo, taio, tajo, tamboo, taoo, tapoo, taqo, Taroko, tatoo, tavo, Tavoy, Tayboo, tayo, tazo, tbo, tebou, Tetovo, tiboo, Titovo, tooooo, trabajo, tubbo, Tzaban. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-o-o-t" | |
-1 letter: boat, boot, bota. | |
-2 letters: abo, bat, boa, boo, bot, oat, oot, tab, tao, too. | |
-3 letters: ab, at, ba, bo, ta, to. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-o-o-t" | |
+1 letter: taboos. | |
+2 letters: obovate, rowboat, seaboot, tabooed, tobacco, tombola, towboat. | |
+3 letters: abortion, barefoot, barstool, bathroom, boathook, boatload, boltonia, bootable, bootjack, bootlace, cockboat, cohobate, datebook, foldboat, football, footbath, hardboot, hoofbeat, jackboot, johnboat, lobation, longboat, mobocrat, oblation, oblatory, obligato, obviator, outboard, outboast, roborant, rowboats, seaboots, showboat, tabooing, tabooley, tarboosh, tobaccos, toboggan, tombolas, towboats, workboat. | |
+4 letters: abolition, abortions, bandicoot, barstools, bathrooms, bloodbath, boathooks, boathouse, boatloads, boltonias, bookplate, bookstall, bootblack, bootjacks, bootlaces, bootstrap, cobaltous, cockboats, cohobated, cohobates, datebooks, foldboats, footballs, footbaths, footboard, geobotany, hardboots, hoofbeats, houseboat, jackboots, johnboats, lobations, longboats, matchbook, mobocrats, motorboat, noncombat, obbligato, obcordate, oblations, obligatos, obturator, obviation, obviators, outboards, outboasts, powerboat, probation, probatory, roborants, showboats, stoneboat, stoopball, tabooleys, tobaccoes, toboggans, workboats. | |
+5 letters: abolitions, abominator, abrogation, absolution, absorption, amoebocyte, automobile, balloonist, bandicoots, barefooted, baroceptor, bassoonist, bilocation, bioreactor, blastocoel, blastopore, bloodbaths, bloodstain, bloviation, boathouses, bookplates, bookstalls, bootblacks, bootstraps, botryoidal, bottomland, broadcloth, brontosaur, cohobating, colobomata, conglobate, footballer, footboards, geobotanic, houseboats, jackbooted, knockabout, laboratory, lobulation, matchbooks, mobocratic, motorboats, nontobacco, obbligatos, obligation, obligatory, obturation, obturators, obviations, osteoblast, outboasted, portabello, powerboats, probations, promotable, roundabout, rouseabout, roustabout, showboated, stoneboats, stoopballs, storyboard, tablespoon, tarbooshes, tobogganed, tobogganer, troubadour. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)54 61 62 6F 6F |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)- .- -... --- --- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010100 01100001 01100010 01101111 01101111 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)T a b o o |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0054 0061 0062 006F 006F |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5467688181 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Translations: Ancient 12. Derivations | 13. Anagrams 14. Orthography 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
