also tabu, 1777 (in Cook's "A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean"), "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed," explained in some English sources as being from Tongan (Polynesian language of the island of Tonga) ta-bu "sacred," from ta "mark" + bu "especially." But this may be folk etymology, as linguists in the Pacific have reconstructed an irreducable Proto-Polynesian *tapu, from Proto-Oceanic *tabu "sacred, forbidden" (compare Hawaiian kapu "taboo, prohibition, sacred, holy, consecrated;" Tahitian tapu "restriction, sacred;" Maori tapu "be under ritual restriction, prohibited"). The noun and verb are English innovations first recorded in Cook's book.
实用例句
1. The Celtic word "geis" is usually translated as "taboo".
凯尔特语中的geis一词通常被译作taboo（禁忌）。
来自柯林斯例句
2. In the main, children are taboo in the workplace.
工作场所基本上禁止儿童进入。
来自柯林斯例句
3. The topic of addiction remains something of a taboo.
毒瘾仍然是个有些忌讳的话题。
来自柯林斯例句
4. So is there any taboo she wouldn't touch? Unhesitatingly she replies, "Politics."
