From Middle High German büten , from Old High German butin , from Medieval Latin butina , which is perhaps related to Late Latin buttis ( “ barrel, cask ” ) . Cognate with German Bütte .
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WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCALNo exact match for “Bidden” in this partial English subset. That does not mean the full research corpus—or linguistic scholarship—has no record. Check the original dictionary entry ↗
INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
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Mayhew–Skeat (1888)
1888; pinned HTML transcription updated October 28, 2024Bidden
This word is outside the curated dossier collection. Here is the dictionary’s etymology, with its language and revision preserved. These claims have not yet passed *SET-U’s graph review.
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MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
kapu
A Hawaiian word for what is prohibited, sacred, consecrated, or set apart, continuing the Oceanic tapu family through the characteristic Hawaiian *t to k sound change.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗taboo
An English borrowing recorded in 1777 from Tongan tabu, now tapu, within an Oceanic family whose reconstructed form joins ritual restriction with sacredness.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗tapu
A Māori word for what is sacred, prohibited, restricted, set apart, or under atua protection, inherited within the wider Oceanic *tampu family.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
*tampu
sacred, forbidden; under ritual restriction
- DATE
- Proto-Oceanic reconstruction
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 3
kapu
prohibited, forbidden, sacred, consecrated, or set apart
- DATE
- Hawaiian record–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
tabu / tapu
forbidden, prohibited, unlawful; historically also sacred or consecrated
- DATE
- Tongan
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 2
Did taboo originally mean only “forbidden”?
No. The Tongan reflexes and wider Oceanic reconstruction carry a semantic field that includes prohibited, under ritual restriction, sacred, holy, and consecrated.
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.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 3
English taboo did not come from Māori tapu.
Māori tapu and English taboo meet deeper in the Oceanic family. English borrowed the Tongan reflex; Māori independently preserves sacredness, prohibition, restriction, and atua protection.
The k in kapu is a fossilized sound change.
Hawaiian kapu and Māori tapu are not misspellings of one another: Hawaiian regularly changed inherited *t toward k while preserving the sacred and prohibited semantic field.
It did not begin as merely “forbidden.”
Tongan and reconstructed Oceanic evidence joins prohibition and ritual restriction with sacredness and consecration.
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “bidden.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
Ghent documentary record
viant / vient / vijand / 1236
Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek — VIANT Iwitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗Andrews Hawaiian dictionary entry
kapu / kapu / 1836 Hawaiian dictionary record
Kapu — Nā Puke Wehewehe ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻiwitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
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