Taboo
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( a.) Set apart or sacred by religious custom among certain races of Polynesia, New Zealand, etc., and forbidden to certain persons or uses; hence, prohibited under severe penalties; interdicted; as, food, places, words, customs, etc., may be taboo.
(2): ( n.) A total prohibition of intercourse with, use of, or approach to, a given person or thing under pain of death, - an interdict of religious origin and authority, formerly common in the islands of Polynesia; interdiction.
(3): ( v. t.) To put under taboo; to forbid, or to forbid the use of; to interdict approach to, or use of; as, to taboo the ground set apart as a sanctuary for criminals.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [2]
solemn prohibition or interdict among the Polynesians under which a particular person or thing is pronounced inviolable, and so sacred, the violation of which entails malediction at the hands of the supernatural powers.
