The Etymology of Table

一个表，根据在线词源字典（OED），有两个离散的意义，可以被称为一个对象，“桌子”和文档。TABLE的现代意义熊掌应用于一些的家具，各种形式的文件TABLE的动词形式不经常使用，名称形式来源于12世纪后的古法语表，从字面的意思是“电脑桌，游戏桌”。本文就来介绍“TABLE”这一词的来源与在生活中的使用形式。

A table, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary (OED), has two discrete meanings and can be referred to an objects, “piece of furniture with the flat top and legs” and document (Noun) (OED) as well as to the process, “enter into a list, form into a list or catalogue” (Verb) (OED).The modern meaning of table is usually applied to some pieces of furniture, in all its forms and to a document, organized in certain way. The verb form of table is used less often these days. The noun form comes from the late 12th century, from Old French table, that meant a board, writing table, square, panel, and other similar things, and from late Old English tabele, that literally meant “writing tablet, gaming table.” The cognates are Dutch tafel, German tafel, Old High German zabel “board, plank,” and Danish tavle. French and German words are from Latin word tabula (William Whitaker's Words). They were used to describe some board, list, schedule, painted panel, and other similar things (OED). 

The aforementioned meaning of table as a piece of some furniture was first recorded in the 13th century. The Latin word for describing it was mensa. In Old English, bord or board was used. It referred to the table people ate at usually (first records in Old English are dated as old as the 14th century). At the beginning, the Latin word tabula means “board” or “plank”, an object for writing. Meanwhile, it also indicates a form which concludes a series of words or figures arranged in a certain rule. It is generally believed that ‘table’ was translated directly from the term used in Frankish. The sense that table was the furniture for serving meals can date back to Roman Empire.  However, long before Greek and Roman times, people usually used trays or plank to serve their meals. During the time of Roman Empire, the word for ‘table’ was established and borrowed by English from Old French table while the word mensa in Latin was introduced into Spanish and became mesa in the local language.  In addition, entablature, tableau, tablet, tabloid, and tabular are all derived from the word ‘table’.

The verb form of table came in use in the mid-15th century in the meaning of putting some information into a list or forming this list/catalog. Additionally, it began to have another meaning – providing with food from table. In 1718, it was used in England first with the meaning of organizing certain discussions: “to lay on the (speaker's) table for discussion” (OED). In the U.S. political jargon it presupposed laying the subject of discussion aside and postponing it for indefinite time (OED; Dictionary.com). 

Furthermore, the use of table started to have a figurative meaning as well in the middle of the 15th century. It was used in Old and Middle English to name game tables. Table talks, for example, is the translation of Latin phrase colloquia mensalis and started to be used from 1560s (OED). It is easy to see here the connection between mensa and table again. The description of the set of rules, credible for behavior during group meals got the name table manners – table here is a place but not an object. The first mentioning of it was recorded in 1824. Another figurative meaning—Table-rapping which is related to spiritualism and indicated the effect of supernatural powers, occurred in 1853. It means “the sounds of knocking or tapping made without any apparent physical agency while a group of people sit round a table, and attributed by spiritualists to the spirit of a dead person using this as a means of communication with the living”.(Collins) In 1887, the record of Table tennis "ping-pong" appeared. From this, it can be seen that the functions of table was changing. Later, the development of language in the 19th– mid-20thcenturies added numerous meanings to the word table and continued to combine it with other words, creating sometimes opposite and irrelevant meanings. The most vivid example is as follows: there is such meaning as to be under the table (1913) meaning to pass out because of drinking that is obviously different from under-the-table (1949) meaning hidden from seeing (OED). 

Moreover, it is peculiar how in Latin tabula and its later, English versions (physical and non-physical meaning) are connected. Tabula has the following meanings: “writing tablet (wax covered board);  records (pl.); document, deed, will; list;plank/board, flat piece of wood; door panel; counting/playing/notice board;picture, painting; wood panel for painting; metal/stone tablet/panel w/text”(William Whitaker’s Words). It is clear that it had a purely physical meaning and described some object. Later, table received numerous indirect meanings and became a part of various phrases, describing either action or other non-physical activity (thoughts, ideas, etc.). However, it should be noted that they are all based on the initial meanings of table. It is something flat and suited to hide something under it or place something on it, or draw, or write (list or under-the-table meaning hidden from seeing, table food, or table talks). It is very interesting to see how the development of culture, science, interpersonal communication, and other influential factors affected the language and enriched it with new elements, based on the ancient words. 

Egyptians are thought as the people who made and used tables instead of putting food on the stone board in the early time. They began to serve their meals but not sit there and the basic form of table came out as they placed food and drinks on a large platform with stand. In spite of this, they also used a variety of small tables for playing. Another group of people who created early tables were Chinese but they used the table for arts, like writing calligraphy or painting. 

Table is generally translated as “zhuozi”(in characters 桌子) in Mandarin Chinese. The first syllable in this word carries the first tone in Mandarin tonal system and functions as the meaningful root. Interestingly, modern Mandarin has gone through a process of disyllabification, thus zi, not carrying any significant meaning, only works as a suffix to satisfy the requirement of a word being disyllabic. Many other Chinese words have the same construction, for example, chair in Mandarin is “yizi”, in which it is also the first syllable carries the content meaning and the second syllable only serves as a dependent morpheme. 

The evolution of language affected this word as well. Words such as tablet and its derivate tabloid became integral parts of Modern English describing things very differently from the original objects. In present-day, tablet usually means an electronic device, and less often it is used to describe paper-based boards to write or draw on. A tabloid is a paper or a magazine of questionable quality of its contents. Both of their names are based on the word table but the modern use has very sharp contrasts. Despite the modern nature of electronic gadgets, the word tablet appeared in the 13th century, meaning “slab or flat surface for an inscription” (OED). It was originated from Old French tablete that described a small table or some counter. The modern meaning is based on the physical similarity of a gadget with ancient tablets that looked like flat thin surface for writing. Tabloid was created from tablet and suffix –oid, from Greek. Before the 20th century, it was used to describe (figuratively) some compressed dose of something. Later, by the 1910s, it was used to describe compressed news.The phrase “tabloid journalism” was coined in 1901 by Alfred C. Harmsworth from the “London Daily Mail.” (OED). Modern tabloids have a reputation of yellow press that produces rather questionable news, based on rumors, scandals, and other similar materials. 

Bibliography
Collins <http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/table-rapping>



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