TABU • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Tabu

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Tabu

adjective

Forbidden to profane use especially in South Pacific islands. Synonym: taboo.

Excluded from use or mention. Synonyms: forbidden, out, prohibited, proscribed, taboo, verboten. "In our house dancing and playing cards were out" , "A taboo subject"

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Etymology of 'Tabu'

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"Tabu" Quotes from Famous Books

... rule was that a man could not marry a woman of his mother's totem. When the change to male descent took place, the mother's totem, as we see by actual examples[135], did not lose the respect which it formerly enjoyed; there is in more than one tribe a tabu of the mother's as well as of the father's totem. That being so, it is natural to suppose that the new marriage organisation according to male descent might be modified to take account of this fact. By dividing the classes and arranging that one ...

— Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia • Northcote W. Thomas

Words linked to "Tabu" : sacred, prejudice, Polynesia, bias, inhibition, preconception, impermissible