Definition of "tabu" [ta•bu]

• Variant of taboo. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "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?"
• "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."
• "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."