Kapu
/ˈkɑːpuː/noun
A Hawaiian sacred prohibition or restriction, and the system of rules governing what is forbidden or reserved.
Did you know?Breaking kapu could carry severe consequences, and the traditional system was formally abolished in Hawaiʻi in 1819 when King Kamehameha II publicly violated its ritual boundaries.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Polynesian
Proto-Polynesian
*tapu
“Sacred, restricted, or prohibited”
Early Polynesian
Polynesian
tapu
“Set apart as sacred or subject to religious prohibition”
Pre-contact Hawaiʻi
Hawaiian
kapu
“Sacred restriction, prohibition, or protected status; Hawaiian regularly changed ancestral t to k”
18th Century
Tongan
tabu
“Forbidden or sacred; a term encountered by European voyagers in Polynesia”
1777
English
taboo
“A Polynesian prohibition or forbidden practice, recorded in English after Captain Cook’s voyages”
Modern English
English
kapu
“A Hawaiian sacred prohibition or traditional system of restrictions”