table

The story

1. Old French · derived fromtable
2. Latin · derived fromtabula“tablet, board, plank, chart”
3. Old English · inherited fromtabele
4. Middle English · inherited fromtable
5. English todaytable

Inherited from Middle English table, tabel, tabil, tabul, from Old English tabele, tabul, tablu, tabule, tabula (“board”); also as tæfl, tæfel, an early Germanic borrowing of Latin tabula (“tablet, board, plank, chart”). 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. Doublet of tabula and tavla.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 15th c. To tabulate; to put into a table or grid.
• from 15th c. To supply (a guest, client etc.) with food at a table; to feed.
• 17th–19th c. To delineate; to represent, as in a picture; to depict.
• from 17th c. To put on the table of a commission or legislative assembly; to propose for formal discussion or consideration, to put on the agenda.
• from 19th c. To remove from the agenda, to postpone dealing with; to shelve (to indefinitely postpone consideration or discussion of something).
• 18th–19th c. To join (pieces of timber) together using coaks.
• from 19th c. To put on a table.