SOURCE 01supportsinstitutional lexicon
Tapu — Te Aka Māori Dictionary
Documents the culturally specific Māori semantic field.
Tapu definitions 1–4- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- John C. Moorfield
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- Te Aka Māori Dictionary · Te Murumāra Foundation
PERMANENT DISPUTE RECORD
ALL DISPUTES ↗CLAIM / COUNTERCLAIM / LIMITRECORD 169
DISPUTE
RECORD.
One scholarly question. Every attached source. The present editorial state, without pretending the last word has been written.
resolvedestablished
Does tapu mean only “forbidden”?
No. Te Aka defines a culturally specific field spanning sacredness, restriction, being set apart, prohibition, atua protection, and social or environmental responsibility.
WORD UNDER REVIEWDISPUTE 169
tapu
/ˈta.pu/ · stative · modifier · noun
A Māori word for what is sacred, prohibited, restricted, set apart, or under atua protection, inherited within the wider Oceanic *tampu family.
01
DIRECT CLAIM EVIDENCE
2 SOURCES WITH A STANCE
A citation is not a vote. Each record says whether the work supports, challenges, contradicts, or contextualizes the position—and identifies the exact locus used.
SOURCE 02contextcomparative lexicon
TAPU [OC] — Prohibited, under ritual restriction, taboo
Supplies the wider inherited semantic comparison.
New Zealand Maori reflex and OC.TAPU description- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Simon J. Greenhill · Ross Clark · Bruce Biggs
- YEAR
- 2010
- PUBLISHER
- Polynesian Lexicon Project Online · Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
02 / EDITORIAL STATE
THE CURRENT RECORD IS RESOLVED.
- CONFIDENCE
- established
- STATUS
- resolved
- LEGACY SOURCE SUMMARY
- Te Aka supplies the Māori semantic analysis and POLLEX supplies the wider comparative field.
The dossier does not reduce tapu to its casual English loanword descendant.