Etymograph

English

entablature

Entablature comes from Italian intavolatura ‘an early form of tablature for lute or keyboard’, from tavola ‘table’, and ultimately from Proto-Italic *taðlā ‘board’.

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*taðlā‘board’reconstructedearlier origin unknown
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtabula‘tablet, sometimes a tablet covered with wax for writing’
  3. Italianc. 1300–presenttavola‘table’
  4. Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentintavolatura‘an early form of tablature for lute or keyboard’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1831entablature

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*taðlā‘board’reconstructedearlier origin unknown
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtabula‘tablet, sometimes a tablet covered with wax for writing’
  3. Italianc. 1300–presenttavola‘table’
  4. Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentintavolatura‘an early form of tablature for lute or keyboard’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1831entablature

Earliest quotation: 1831, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley: “In the midst was one immense cedar, worthy to…”

Linked words

through Proto-Italic *taðlā ‘board’

tablet, 14 more

through Latin tabula ‘tablet, sometimes a tablet covered with wax…’

table, tabular, tabula, 15 more

Today it means

noun All of that part of a classical temple above the capitals of the columns; includes the architrave, frieze, and cornice but not the roof.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Italic *taðlā / entablature

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