tavolato

Forms

tavolato m (plural tavolati)^[1] An old plural was le tavolata, feminine, and an old form tabulato.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tabulātum (“floor of boards, storey”), formed from tabula (“board, plank”) .^{[4][5][6][7][1][8]} DEI calls it an adaptation of the Latin word, and Devoto saw its form influenced by the Italian noun.^[9][10] Sabatini–Coletti and Treccani treat it as formed from Italian tavola + -ato in Italian.^[11][12]

The Latin word survives in the dialects: Venetian tabiado (“hayloft”) in old Belluno, tabiao in Venice and talvà at Verona.^[9][13] In western Romance it is Occitan taulat, Catalan taulat, Spanish tablado (“stage”) and Portuguese taboado (“floor”), and it was borrowed as Welsh taflod (“loft”).^[13][2][9] De Vaan derives the Latin noun from a Proto-Italic word for “board”, and gives a Proto-Indo-European source only with a question mark.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Boccaccio's Decameron (1348–1353): the brothers listen from behind a tavolato, a wooden partition dividing the dying Ser Ciappelletto's room from the next.^{[14][5][2][15]}

Semantic evolution

Old texts use it for any surface made of boards: a floor, a platform, a partition, the wooden fittings of an altar, and a storey of a building.^[2][15] Leonardo uses it for wooden floors over which water runs.^[15]

The geological sense goes back to the 18th century: Vallisnieri in 1726 speaks of mountains formed di strati, o di tavolati “of layers or slabs”, and Targioni Tozzetti in 1768 uses it for a plateau of horizontal rock strata.^[14] Modern geography uses it for land of middle height between lowland and highland, about 250 metres above sea level.^[5][6][12] In anatomy the tavolato osseo is each of the two layers of compact bone of the flat bones of the skull.^[5][7][12]

Timeline

• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses tavolato for a wooden partition.^[14][5]
• 1726 – Vallisnieri uses tavolati for layers of rock.^[14]
• 1768 – Targioni Tozzetti uses it for a plateau of horizontal strata.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. planking, boarding: a surface of boards joined together.^{[5][6][12][1]}
2. A floor or wall made of wooden boards; a board floor like parquet.^[5][7][16]
3. (building) A thin partition wall between two rooms; also a fence of boards.^[5][6][12]
4. (geography) A plateau of horizontal rock strata, of middle height between lowland and highland: tavolato continentale, tavolato vulcanico.^{[5][6][11][12]}
5. (anatomy) tavolato osseo: the compact outer and inner layer of the flat bones.^[5][6][11]

Related words

• tavola
• tavolare
• Latin tabulātum
• Spanish tablado

Usage notes

Tavolato is also the past participle of tavolare, “covered with boards”, recorded in old texts such as the vernacular Crescenzi.^[5][15][2] A separate old tavolato “fish shop”, recorded in the 16th century, was adapted from Spanish tablado.^[9][2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 980
4. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3734
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 439
11. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana