tabulatum

Forms

tabulātum n (genitive tabulātī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin tabula (“board, plank”) + -ātus, used as a noun.^[2][3] De Vaan calls the origin of tabula uncertain: from Proto-Italic *taþlā- (“board”) it might be a root *ta- with an instrument suffix, perhaps *teh₂- (“to stand”), so “that which stands”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Ennius,^[4][3] whose Annals tell how masts are split and platforms and towers are made.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a floor or platform of boards, and the boarded deck of a ship.^[2] Caesar uses it of the storeys of a tower of four floors, and it is used of storeys of buildings and siege towers.^[2] Of trees it is a tier formed by horizontal branches, as Pliny the Elder's birds that choose the tiers of branches to hold a nest, especially those used for training vines.^[2][1] Church Latin glosses it board, floor of a building, platform.^[5]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of platforms built from masts.^[2][3]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of a tower of four storeys.^[2][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of tiers of branches.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A floor or platform of boards; the deck of a ship.^[2][5][1]
2. A floor or storey of a building or tower.^[2][1]
3. A tier of horizontal branches of a tree, especially for training vines.^[2]

Related words

• tabula

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson