The story
- Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian · derived from*tambu
- Proto-Oceanic · derived from*tabu
- Proto-Polynesian · derived from*tapu
- Tongan · borrowed fromtapu“prohibited, sacred”
- English todaytaboo
Borrowed from Tongan tapu (“prohibited, sacred”), from Proto-Polynesian *tapu, from Proto-Oceanic *tabu, from Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *tambu. Doublet of kapu. First attested in c. 1777. The p in the Tongan source was misheard as b.
Words from the same roots
Proto-Polynesian*tapu all →
kapu
Proto-Oceanic*tabu all →
kapu
Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian*tambu all →
kapu
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.