English
kapu
Kapu comes from Hawaiian kapu ‘taboo, prohibition’, and goes back to Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *tambu.
- Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesianprehistoric (reconstructed)*tambureconstructed
- Proto-Oceanicprehistoric (reconstructed)*tabureconstructed
- Proto-Polynesianprehistoric (reconstructed)*tapu‘taboo’reconstructed
- Hawaiianmodernkapu‘taboo, prohibition’
- Englishearliest quotation 2004same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesianprehistoric (reconstructed)*tambureconstructed
- Proto-Oceanicprehistoric (reconstructed)*tabureconstructed
- Proto-Polynesianprehistoric (reconstructed)*tapu‘taboo’reconstructed
- Hawaiianmodernkapu‘taboo, prohibition’
- Englishearliest quotation 2004same form
Earliest quotation: 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth: “The operation of taboos – or kapu – kept…”
Linked words
through Proto-Polynesian *tapu ‘taboo’
Today it means
noun Taboo, especially in Hawaiian contexts.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.