table French · revision 16414

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 1050, Vie de saint Alexis|origins=la tabula}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /tabl/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''table''' ''f'' (plural tables)^(Wiktionary)

+ ''Tabla'' (1050), [[m|fro|table]] (about 1150); also the more evolved forms ''taule'', ''tauble''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|fro|table]], [[inh|la|tabula|t=plank; writing tablet; table]], a word of uncertain origin, probably borrowed.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|13/1, 14a)^(Wiktionary) Latin “tabula” meant a board, especially for writing, a public notice board for laws and lists, a will, a votive tablet, a gaming board and a bench made of planks; in the popular Latin of Gaul and Italy it replaced the classical word for “table”, [[la|mēnsa]], which survives in [[es|mesa]] and [[ro|masă]] and in French only in the carpentry term [[moise]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007) French “table” is a doublet of the more popular [[tôle]] and [[taule]].^(Wiktionary)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ Some uses come from ancient or Church Latin: the Twelve Tables, the tables of the Law, and “table rase” from the scholastic “tabula rasa”, going back to Aristotle.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ Cognate with [[it|tavola]], [[oc|taula]], [[ca|taula]], [[es|tabla]] and [[pt|tábua|alt=tabua]].^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is first found as ''tabla'' about 1050 in the ''Vie de saint Alexis'', meaning a flat surface on legs for food, Wace (about 1150) has ''as tables erent ja asiz'' “they were already seated at the tables”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ At first it named boards set on trestles for the dishes, ''mettre les tables'' was said even of cloths laid on the grass.^(DHLF 1992) ''La Roünde Table'' of King Arthur's knights is in Wace's ''Brut'' (1155), and ''table ronde'' was later a kind of tournament (1279) and, today, a discussion.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) By metonymy ''table'' meant the meal and the food (1225–1230, ''après table''), whence ''tenir bonne table'' (about 1380), ''tenir table ouverte'' (1606) and ''table d'hôte'' (1627).^(TLFi)

+

+ The writing tablet of Latin lives on in ''tables de la Loi'', ''table de multiplication'', ''table des matières'' and ''table rase''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007) ''Se mettre à table'' “to confess” dates from 1845.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1050 – ''Tabla'' in the ''Vie de saint Alexis''.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1150 – ''Table'' in Wace.^(TLFi)

+ * 1155 – ''La Roünde Table'' in Wace's ''Brut''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1225–1230 – ''Après table'' “after the meal”, in Guillaume de Lorris.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1380 – ''Tenir bonne table''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1606 – ''Tenir table ouverte'', in Nicot.^(TLFi)

+ * 1627 – ''Table d'hôte''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|table]]: ''mettre la table'', ''table de nuit''.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # The meal, the food served: ''se mettre à table'', ''aimer la table''; the people at a table.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # A flat slab or surface: ''table de cuisson'', ''table d'harmonie''.^(GLLF 1989)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # A tablet or list of data arranged in order: ''table de multiplication'', ''table des matières'', ''les tables de la Loi''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''Table ronde'': a round-table discussion, ''faire table rase'': to make a clean sweep.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ # ''(slang)'' ''Se mettre à table'': to confess, squeal.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[attabler]]

+ * [[tabler]]

+ * [[tablée]]

+ * [[tablette]]

+ * [[tablier]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[tableau]]

+ * [[tabulaire]]

+ * [[tabulation]]

+ * [[tôle]]

+ * [[taule]]

+ * [[la|tabula]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}