tábua

Forms

tábua f (plural tábuas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote tavoa and taboa in the 13th century and tauua, tavola and tabla in the 14th;^[2][3] taboa was the usual spelling until the 20th century.^[2][3] Wiktionary lists táboa as an alternative form, the spelling Nascentes thought better.^[1][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tabula (“board, plank”), written Old Galician-Portuguese tavoa in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] Nascentes explains the return of /b/ in Old Galician-Portuguese taboa by learned influence or by the confusion of ⟨b⟩ and ⟨v⟩, and reports that Cornu found the /b/ odd in a popular word and that Nunes, because the post-tonic vowel was not lost (which would have given *tabla, *tabra), considered the word a late one.^[4] Houaiss compares the 14th-century Old Galician-Portuguese tabla, the popular outcome; the learned tábula is a later doublet.^[2][3][1]

The same Latin word is Galician táboa, Spanish tabla, Catalan taula, Occitan taula, French table and Italian tavola.^[5][6][1]

The Latin noun goes back to *taþlā “board”, cognate with tafle.^[7] Its further origin is uncertain: de Vaan suggests a root ⟨*ta-⟩ with the instrument suffix *-dʰlom, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”) in a form without s-, so that the board would be “that which stands”.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria an image is painted en hũa tavoa “on a panel”, and marbles are brought from afar and sawn por fazer tavoas grandes to set around the altar of the Virgin.^[8] The Miragres de Santiago use taboa for the silver altar frontal of the cathedral of Santiago.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From the plank and the painted panel the word spread to flat things of other materials, from 1593; in the 15th century it already named a table of data or index and a piece of furniture, a table for meals or games.^[2] The plural tábuas names the tablets on which something is written, such as the Tábuas da Lei, from 1899.^[2] Other senses are the canvas of a painting, a map or plate, the plates of the skull bones and the sides of a horse's neck.^[2][10]

Brazilian Portuguese gave the word the sense “refusal of a marriage proposal”, recorded from 1899, and informally a refusal to dance and a trick;^[2][1] dar tábua and levar tábua are to refuse and to be refused.^[2][1] Informally a tábua is also a very thin, flat-chested woman.^[2][1] The word passed into Macanese as tábu and into Kadiwéu as taaboa.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – tavoa in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[8][3]
• 14th century – tauoas, tauua, tavola and tabla.^[2][3]
• 15th century – the spelling taboa; first records of the senses “table of contents” and “table”.^[2]
• 1593 – first record of a tábua of another material than wood.^[2]
• 1619 – taboas in a private letter.^[11]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira defines it as a flat piece of wood from which doors, tables and benches are made.^[12]
• 1899 – first records of the Brazilian “refusal of a marriage proposal” and of tábuas “tablets”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A board or plank: a flat, sawn piece of wood, thin and fairly wide.^[2][13][1]
2. Any flat plate of another material: uma tábua de mármore.^[2][14]
3. A board used in the kitchen for cutting food;^[10][1] tábua de engomar, an ironing board.^[10][1]
4. A systematic table of data; an index or catalogue;^[2][13][1] (mathematics) a table of calculated values.^[2][13][1]
5. A table for meals or games.^[2][13]
6. A picture, map or plate; the canvas on which a painting is made.^[2][15]
7. (anatomy) The inner or outer plate of each bone of the skull.^[2]
8. Each side of the neck of a horse or other animal.^[2][13][16]
9. (informal) A very thin person; a woman with a flat chest.^[2][1]
10. (Brazil, informal) A refusal, especially of a marriage proposal or an invitation to dance.^[2][1]
11. (in the plural) Tablets bearing an inscription: as Tábuas da Lei.^[2]

Word family

• tabuada
• tabuado
• tabuame
• entabuar

Related words

• tabela
• tábula
• tabuleiro
• távola
• Latin tabula
• Galician táboa
• Spanish tabla

Usage notes

Tábua rasa “blank slate” is a set phrase.^[1] Tábua is also the name of a town and municipality in the district of Coimbra, probably after a wooden bridge that stood there.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tábua
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tábua
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 482
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. tabula
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 360
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. tavoa
9. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. taboa
10. ^ a b c Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. tábua
11. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. tábua
12. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 659
13. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tábua
14. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. tábua
15. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8770
16. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. tábua