taboo

plural taboos · alternative tabu · alternative tapu

1. countableuncountableAn inhibition or ban that results from social custom or emotional aversion.

   It is true indeed that a taboo - in order to be a proper taboo - must not rest in the general mind on argument or reason.

   1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 194

   5 more examples

   So among the Alfoors of the island of Buru it is taboo to mention the names of parents and parents-in-law, or even to speak of common objects by words which resemble these names in sound.

   1922, James Frazer, The Golden Bough

   The sharp differentiation of the sexes in our culture was shaped most probably by monogamy and monosexuality and their tabus.

   1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 213

   For a structuralist like Edmund Leach, the structure is the meaning. Genesis, for example, is about incest taboos; all the rest is noise and mystification.

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 12

   American society has a double standard when it comes to sexuality. We have a puritanical taboo against talking about sexuality directly, yet we are fine with the sexual images that pervade television and glossy magazines.

   2014 May 21, Rey Junco, “What’s the big deal about sexting?”, in CNN

   Now, we assume that people who check their watches at dinner are probably trying to avoid pulling out their phones, which would be ruder and more disruptive. In other words, mass adoption killed the taboo.

   2023 June 6, Kevin Roose, “Why I Can’t Bet Against Apple’s Mixed-Reality Prowess”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 07 Jun 2023

2. countableuncountableSomething which may not be used, approached or mentioned because it is sacred.

comparative more taboo · superlative most taboo · alternative tabu · alternative tapu

1. Excluded or forbidden from use, approach or mention.

   Incest is a taboo subject in most soap operas.

   1 more example

   Sweets and fats are strictly taboo in my home.

2. Culturally forbidden.

present singular third person taboos · participle present tabooing · participle past tabooed · past tabooed · alternative tabu · alternative tapu

1. transitiveTo mark as taboo.

   Synonyms: tabooize

2. transitiveTo ban or prohibit.

   They lunched, but if the subject of Carrados had been tabooed the meal would have been a silent one.

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

3. transitiveTo avoid.