Pl. -æ. [The L. word tabula TABLE, used in particular senses.]
1. An ancient writing-tablet; also transf. a body of laws inscribed on a tablet: see TABLE sb. 2 b, d, TABLET sb. 1 c.
1881. E. Hübner, in Encycl. Brit., XIII. 124/1. Instruments or charters, public and private (styled by the Romans first leges, afterwards instrumenta or tabulæ).
1904. C. Wordsworth, Old Service Bks., 264. The Tabula or Wax-brede was of the nature of a service-paper rather than of a service-book.
b. Tabula rasa [L. = scraped tablet], a tablet from which the writing has been erased, and which is therefore ready to be written upon again; a blank tablet: usually fig.
1535. Lyndesay, Satyre, 224. Because I haue bene, to this day, Tanquam tabula rasa.
1607. Sir T. Bodley, in Cabbala, II. (1654), 76. For that were indeed to become Tabula rasa, when we shall leave no impression of any former principles, but be driven to begin the world again.
1662. South, Serm. (1727), I. 52. Aristotle … affirms the Mind to be at first a mere Rasa Tabula.
1709. Swift, Tritical Ess., Wks. 1754, III. 254. The mind of man is at first (if you will pardon the expression) like a tabula rasa, or like wax, which, while it is soft, is capable of any impression, till time has hardened it.
1803. Man in the Moon, VI. 30 Nov., 42. The mind of man is not then, perhaps, what the great Mr. Locke has conceived it to be, a mere tabula rasa, a blank sheet; but rather a space occupied by the divine essence, and which contains the attributes of the divinity love and truth.
1866. A. Butler, Lives of the Saints, ‘Chrysostom.’ The ancient Romans dreaded nothing more in the education of youth, than their being ill-taught the first principles of the sciences; it being more difficult to unlearn the errors then imbibed, than to begin on a mere tabula rasa, or blank paper.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 73. The artist will do nothing until he has made a tabula rasa.
1893. Nation (N.Y.), 1 June, 403/1. France had become a Tabula rasa, and everything had to be reorganized.
1923. R. H. Schauffler (title), Tabula Rasa, 5, in Magic Flame, etc., 5.
| How would they tremble if they were to look | |
| Within that tiny head | |
| And find no blank page, but instead | |
| The hieroglyphs of a most ancient book. |
2. Eccl. A wooden or metal frontal for an altar.
1845. Parker, Gloss. Archit., s.v. Table, The most remarkable example of the tabula, destined for the front of the Altar, is preserved in Westminster abbey; it is formed of wood, elaborately carved, painted, and enriched with a kind of mosaic work of coloured glass superficially inlaid.
3. a. Anat. TABLE sb. 16.
1857. Dunglison, Med. Dict., Table, Tabula, Tabella, Tabulatum,… a name given to the plates of compact tissue, which form the bones of the cranium. Of these, one is external; the other internal, and called Tabula vitrea, on account of its brittleness.
b. Palæont. Name for the horizontal dissepiments in certain corals: cf. TABULATE a. 3.
1855. Lyell, Elem. Geol., xxv. (ed. 5), 407. The lamellæ are seen around the inside of the cup;… and large transverse plates, called tabulæ, divide the interior into chambers.
1859. Murchison, Siluria (ed. 2), x. 243. The development of the transverse plates or tabulæ, in the body of the coral.
