Note 129 — LECTURE III. Primitive Religious Expression: in the Word.

Other forms are tapui, to make sacred; tabui, to keep from; tabuaki, to bless. Here, as elsewhere, there is a synonomy between “sacred” or “holy” and “accursed,” because it is accursed to defile that which is holy. Another, and less probable, derivation is given by Frazer, in the Encyclopædia Britannica, s. v. “Taboo.” He is perfectly right, however, in saying that the original form of the tabu is due, not to its civil, but to its religious element.