Tabooization

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of designating certain topics or practices as socially unacceptable involves creating an environment of restriction and avoidance around them
2. This process entails the societal imposition of restrictions that label specific subjects as inappropriate for discourse
3. The process by which certain subjects or actions become regarded as socially unacceptable leads to an atmosphere of avoidance and restriction about them

Etymology: "Tabooization" is "tabooize" with the suffix "-ation" added, so it names the act or process of turning something into a taboo, that is, making it forbidden. The base verb "tabooize" is itself formed from "taboo" with the verb-forming ending "-ize", so the word is built in two layers, each one a step further from the original sense. The root "taboo" came into English from Tongan, a Polynesian language, where "tabu" meant something set apart as sacred or prohibited. Captain James Cook's voyages in the Pacific in the late 1700s brought the word to English readers, and it quickly took on a wider sense of anything off-limits for social or moral reasons. The suffix "-ation" is the familiar English ending that turns a verb into a noun for an action or process, as in "standardization" or "commercialization." Because "tabooize" is the verb, "tabooization" needs the suffix to describe the process itself. The word is a straightforward derivation, so its interest lies mainly in the long journey of the root from a Pacific island language into a flexible English vocabulary.