table

See also: Table and tablé

English
WOTD – 11 February 2015

Etymology
A table (furniture)
A table of characters in the Arabic alphabet

From Middle English table, tabel, tabil, tabul, from Old English tabele, tabul, tablu, tabule, tabula (“board”); also as tæfl, tæfel, an early Germanic borrowing of Latin tabula (“tablet, board, plank, chart”). The sense of “piece of furniture with the flat top and legs” is from Old French table, of same Latin origin; Old English used bēod or bord instead for this meaning: see board.

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: tāʹbəl, IPA(key): /ˈteɪbəl/
  • Audio (RP)(file)
  • Audio (GA)(file)
  • Audio (AU)(file)
  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪbəl
  • Hyphenation: ta‧ble

Noun

table (plural tables)

  1. Furniture with a top surface to accommodate a variety of uses.
    1. An item of furniture with a flat top surface raised above the ground, usually on one or more legs.
      • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 6, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
        He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it.
      • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess:
        A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away, […].
    2. A flat tray which can be used as a table.
    3. (poker, metonymically) The lineup of players at a given table.
      That's the strongest table I've ever seen at a European Poker Tour event
    4. A group of people at a table, for example for a meal or game.
      • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:
        The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […] . Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.
    5. A service of Holy Communion.
  2. A two-dimensional presentation of data.
    1. A matrix or grid of data arranged in rows and columns.
      • 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 69 (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN
        I’m using mathesis — a universal science of measurement and order …
        And there is also taxinomia a principle of classification and ordered tabulation.
        Knowledge replaced universal resemblance with finite differences. History was arrested and turned into tables …
        Western reason had entered the age of judgement.
    2. A collection of arithmetic calculations arranged in a table, such as multiplications in a multiplication table.
      The children were practising multiplication tables.
      Don’t you know your tables?
      Here is a table of natural logarithms.
    3. (computing, chiefly databases) A lookup table, most often a set of vectors.
    4. (sports) A visual representation of a classification of teams or individuals based on their success over a predetermined period.
      • 2011 April 10, Alistair Magowan, “Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport:
        On this evidence they will certainly face tougher tests, as a depleted Newcastle side seemed to bask in the relative security of being ninth in the table.
  3. (music) The top of a stringed instrument, particularly a member of the violin family: the side of the instrument against which the strings vibrate.
  4. (backgammon) One half of a backgammon board, which is divided into the inner and outer table.
  5. The flat topmost facet of a cut diamond.

Synonyms

Hypernyms

Hyponyms
furniture
geology
two-dimensional enlisting

Derived terms

Pages starting with "table".

Coordinate terms

Descendants

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

References

Verb

table (third-person singular simple present tables, present participle tabling, simple past and past participle tabled)

  1. To tabulate; to put into a table or grid. [from 15th c.]
    to table fines
  2. (now rare) To supply (a guest, client etc.) with food at a table; to feed. [from 15th c.]
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)
  3. (obsolete) To delineate; to represent, as in a picture; to depict. [17th–19th c.]
    • Francis Bacon
      tabled and pictured in the chambers of meditation
  4. (non-US) To put on the table of a commission or legislative assembly; to propose for formal discussion or consideration, to put on the agenda. [from 17th c.]
    • 2019, Heather Stewart and Daniel Boffey, The Guardian, 16 January:
      In a raucous Commons, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, confirmed he had tabled a formal motion of confidence in the government, backed by other opposition leaders, which MPs would vote on on Wednesday.
  5. (chiefly US) To remove from the agenda, to postpone dealing with; to shelve (to indefinitely postpone consideration or discussion of something). [from 19th c.]
    The legislature tabled the amendment, so they will not be discussing it until later.
    The motion was tabled, ensuring that it would not be taken up until a later date.
  6. (carpentry, obsolete) To join (pieces of timber) together using coaks. [18th–19th c.]
  7. To put on a table. [from 19th c.]
    • 1833 Thomas Carlyle, letter to his Mother, The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson
      [A]fter some clatter offered us a rent of five pounds for the right to shoot here, and even tabled the cash that moment, and would not pocket it again.
  8. (nautical) To make board hems in the skirts and bottoms of (sails) in order to strengthen them in the part attached to the bolt-rope.

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

References

Anagrams

French

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /tabl/
  • audio(file)

Etymology 1

From Old French table, from Latin tabula (“tablet”). Doublet of tôle and taule.

Noun

table f (plural tables)

  1. table (item of furniture)
  2. flat surface atop various objects
  3. flat part of a cut or carved object
  4. (music) table of a stringed instrument
  5. matrix or grid of data arranged in rows and columns
  6. systematic list of content
Derived terms
Descendants

Etymology 2

From the verb tabler.

Verb

table

  1. first-person singular present indicative of tabler
  2. third-person singular present indicative of tabler
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of tabler
  4. third-person singular present subjunctive of tabler
  5. second-person singular imperative of tabler

Anagrams

Further reading

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From a conflation of Old French table and Old English tabele, tabul, tablu, tabule, tabula, both from Latin tabula.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈtaːbəl/, /ˈtaːbul/

Noun

table (plural tables or tablen)

  1. A table (flat piece of furniture for dining and working):
    1. The flat or level surface or top of a table; the part of a table that is used.
    2. (figuratively) A location where one's soul receives nutrition
    3. (figuratively) A serving, helping, or portion of food.
  2. A surface for writing upon:
    1. A tablet, especially an easily carried one for writing on.
    2. An inscribed memorial, dedication, message, indication or other text; a sign or monument.
    3. (biblical) The Ten Commandments in physical form handed down from heaven.
  3. A variety of other surfaces:
    1. A slab or pole of wood; a wooden surface, especially behind an altar.
    2. A surface used as part of a board game, especially one divided in two sections.
    3. A flat surface as part of a building; a level or storey.
    4. A level surface for painting upon.
    5. (rare) A flat bone or fused set of bones.
    6. (rare) A flat piece of land used of growing upon.
    7. (rare, palmistry) A level portion of the hand surrounded by palm lines.
  4. A glossary or almanac; a reference work or chart of data.
  5. A board game similar to backgammon.

Descendants

References

Old French

Etymology

From Latin tabula.

Noun

table f (oblique plural tables, nominative singular table, nominative plural tables)

  1. table (furniture)

Descendants

See also

Romanian

Etymology

From Greek τάβλι (távli). Doublet of tablă.

Noun

table f pl (plural only)

  1. backgammon
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