tabooEtymology (from etymonline.com): also tabu, 1777 (in Cook's "A Voyage to the
Pacific Ocean"), "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or
cursed," explained in some English sources as being from Tongan
(Polynesian language of the island of Tonga) ta-bu "sacred," from ta "mark" + bu "especially." But this may be folk etymology, as linguists in the Pacific have reconstructed an irreducable Proto-Polynesian *tapu, from Proto-Oceanic *tabu "sacred, forbidden" (compare Hawaiian kapu "taboo, prohibition, sacred, holy, consecrated;" Tahitian tapu "restriction, sacred, devoted; an oath;" Maori tapu "be under ritual restriction, prohibited"). The noun and verb are English innovations first recorded in Cook's book. |
toonaNothing to do with 'tuna'!, a kind of tree. Maybe the English word comes from Chinese? Also spelled 'toon', 'tun'. |
troweltrow‧el /ˈtraʊəl/ noun [countable] 1 a garden tool like a very small spade from Old French truele "trowel" (13c.), from Late Latin truella "small ladle, dipper" (mid-12c.), diminutive of Latin trua "a stirring spoon, ladle, skimmer." - Apparently this gave him an idea: he - On the grass near the tree Mary had dropped her trowel. Colin stretched out |