tabu

Would it not be wiser to believe that when the English spelled their word tabu, what they actually heard was something different'somewhere between tabu and Jcapu, but slightly inclining toward the former" whereas when the Americans wrote their word Icapu, what they heard was also something quite different'somewhere between tabu and Icapu, but inclining slightly toward the latter?

Hawaii Michener, James 1959

The tabu was the most ingenious and effective of all the inventions that has ever been devised for keeping a people's privileges satisfactorily restricted.

Following the Equator — Part 1 Mark Twain 1872

The tabu was the most ingenious and effective of all the inventions that has ever been devised for keeping a people's privileges satisfactorily restricted.

Following the Equator Mark Twain 1872

The tabu was a most ingenious and useful device; and when you hear of the uses to which it was put, and of its effectiveness, you feel surprised that it was not found elsewhere as an appurtenance of the feudal machinery.

Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands Charles Nordhoff 1865

The Fijian people have a centuries-old tradition of setting aside no-fishing areas, called tabu areas.

Conservation International - Feature Articles 2009

The Fijian people have a centuries-old tradition of setting aside no-fishing areas, called tabu areas.

Conservation International - Feature Articles 2009

In various islands of the Pacific, for both the reasons above specified, the name of the reigning chief is so rigorously "tabu," that common words and even syllables resembling that name in sound must be omitted from the language.

Myths and Myth-makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology 1872

The custom of "tabu," called here "pomali," is very general, fruit trees, houses, crop, and property of all kinds being protected from depredation by this ceremony, the reverence for which is very great.

The Malay Archipelago, the land of the orang-utan and the bird of paradise; a narrative of travel, with studies of man and nature — Volume 2 Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

The custom of "tabu" was just as universally practised as in the Friendly Islands, and the natives were always careful to ask if things were "tabu" before they touched them.

Celebrated Travels and Travellers Part 2. The Great Navigators of the Eighteenth Century Jules Verne 1866

Latin 're-ligare' [literally to 'tie again', 're-tie', 'bind'] which originally designated "a power outside man obligating him to certain behaviour under pain of threatened awesome retribution, a kind of tabu, or the feeling in man vis-a-vis such powers."

Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009