verboten

See also: Verboten and verböten

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

Borrowed from German verboten (“forbidden”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌvɜː(ɹ)ˈbəʊ.tən/
• IPA^(key): /ˌfə(ɹ)ˈboʊ.tən/, /ˌvə(ɹ)ˈboʊ.tən/

Adjective

verboten (not comparable)

1. Forbidden, prohibited.
   • 2015 February 27, Laura Kipnis, “Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe”, in The Chronicle of Higher Education‎^[1]:

     Before that, students and professors could date whomever we wanted; the next day we were off-limits to one another—verboten, traife, dangerous (and perhaps, therefore, all the more alluring).

   • 2018 August 2, Kara Swisher, “The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     Or was it because he has since been steeped in the relentless positivity of Silicon Valley, where it is verboten to imagine a bad outcome?

Usage notes

A loanword with connotations of excessive strictness or authoritarianism, derived from perceptions of Germany, especially under the German Empire and National Socialism.

Anagrams

• overbent

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German

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

Past participle of verbieten.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɛɐ̯ˈboːtn̩/, /fɛɐ̯ˈboːtən/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

verboten (not comparable)

1. forbidden, prohibited, banned
   • 1929, Kurt Tucholsky, Das Lächeln der Mona Lisa (Sammelband), Ernst Rowohlt Verlag, page 120:

     Für die Massen ist die Nation der Inbegriff alles Mystischen, Imponderabilen, schlechthin Unbegreiflichen – auf diesem Gebiet ist alles erlaubt und kann alles verboten sein, hier wachsen die großen Männer, deren Größe an der Kleinheit der Umstehenden gemessen wird.

     For the masses the nation is the embodiment of all that is mystical, imponderable, plainly incomprehensible – in this area everything is allowed and everything can be forbidden, here the great men grow, whose greatness is measured against the smallness of the bystanders.

Verb

verboten

1. past participle of verbieten

Further reading

• “verboten” in Duden online