English
table
Table comes from Middle English table ‘the top of a table’, from Old English tabele ‘board’, from Latin tabula, from Proto-Italic *taðlā.
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*taðlā‘board’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtabula‘tablet’
- Old Englishc. 450–1150tabele‘board’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500table‘the top of a table’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602table
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*taðlā‘board’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtabula‘tablet’
- Old Englishc. 450–1150tabele‘board’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500table‘the top of a table’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602table
Earliest quotation: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: “Alas poore Yorick […] VVhere be your Jibes now?…”
The story
The sense of “piece of furniture” is from Old French table, of same Latin origin; Old English used bēod or bord instead for this meaning: see board.
Linked words
through Latin tabula ‘tablet, board, plank, chart’
Today it means
noun An item of furniture with a flat top surface raised above the ground, usually on one or more legs.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Italic *taðlā / table