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Taboo vs Etiquette - What's the difference?

taboo | etiquette |

As nouns the difference between taboo and etiquette

is that taboo is an inhibition or ban that results from social custom or emotional aversion while etiquette is the forms required by good breeding, or prescribed by authority, to be observed in social or official life; observance of the proprieties of rank and occasion; conventional decorum; ceremonial code of polite society.

As an adjective taboo

is excluded or forbidden from use, approach or mention.

As a verb taboo

is to mark as taboo.

taboo

English

(wikipedia taboo)

Alternative forms

* tabu

Noun

(en noun)
  • An inhibition or ban that results from social custom or emotional aversion.
  • *
  • * 1974 , (Lawrence Durrell), Monsieur , Faber & Faber 1992, p. 213:
    • The sharp differentiation of the sexes in our culture was shaped most probably by monogamy and monosexuality and their tabus .
  • (in Polynesia) Something which may not be used, approached or mentioned because it is sacred.

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Excluded or forbidden from use, approach or mention.
    • Incest is a taboo subject in most soap operas.
  • Culturally forbidden.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To mark as taboo.
  • To ban.
  • To avoid.

    • Anagrams

    *

    etiquette

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The forms required by good breeding, or prescribed by authority, to be observed in social or official life; observance of the proprieties of rank and occasion; conventional decorum; ceremonial code of polite society.
  • The customary behavior of members of a profession, business, law, or sports team towards each other.
  • * 2012 , July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track
    • Cycling's complex etiquette contains an unwritten rule that riders in contention for a race win should not be penalised for sheer misfortune.
  • A label used to indicate that a letter is to be sent by airmail.

    • Quotations

    * 1885 , *: If you think we are worked by strings, / Like a Japanese marionette, / You don't understand these things / It is simply Court etiquette . * 2001 , Eric R. Wolf, Sydel Silverman, Aram A. Yengoyan, Pathways of Power: Building an Anthropology of the Modern World , page 182 *: These then influence other groups, who recut and reshape their patterns of interpersonal etiquettes to fit those utilized by the tone-setting group.

    Related terms

    * etiquettal * jetiquette * netiquette