Table

[Dr. Goodword]

• table •

Pronunciation: tay-bêl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. (US) To postpone the discussion of a motion at a meeting until a later date. 2. (UK) To introduce and present formally for discussion at a meeting. 3. To create a table or list of data, to tabulate.

Notes: We are discussing only the verbal senses of today's Good Word because the noun has so many well-known meanings. The verb is a contranym, a word that has two contrary meanings. The present participle, tabling, doubles (triples?) as both adjective and noun.

In Play: This verb means "to delay discussion" in the US: "The motion to allow massage parlors in Podunkton was tabled until after the November elections." In the UK, however, it means to introduce a motion: "The report on the city's efforts to reduce expenditures was tabled today before a council that showed little appetite for it."

Word History: The verb, of course, came from the noun, meaning "to put on the table", but on different tables in the UK and US. The noun comes from Latin tabula "board, table, list, painted panel". It came to Old Germanic as tabal, which went on to become German Tafel, Danish tavle, and Dutch tafel. Now, the closest PIE word to tabula is tel- "flat, board". We see it in Sanskrit tala- "flat", Greek telia "board", and Latin tellus "Earth", back when the planet was perceived as flat. Latin has a diminutive suffix, -ula, but that leaves the [e] > [a] shift and the insertion of B to explain. The shift of the sense of "board" to "table" is an ancient one. It even took place in English as the expression 'room and board' indicates. Apparently, the earliest tables were simply boards laid across a support. (Pamela Losey noticed the difference between the UK and US usages of today's Good Word and thought it would be of interest to us.)

[Philip Hudson]

Note that the British and American words table are almost directly in opposition to each other. Having a lot of experience in British and American negotiations of technical matter, I have run up against this often.

[David Myer]

I have discussed this one with a friend who is especially interested in contranyms (although he calls them contronyms).

Here is his comment:

"Hmmm … my first response is that this opens up the whole question of what is a contronym.

I’ve not heard this American use of ’table’. It’s never used with that meaning in England (or Australia).

So in a way, US English is a different language from UK English, and contronym must surely apply only to a word with opposite meanings in the same language? One that an individual might use in both meanings?

We could debate this for weeks …"

I think he has a good point. 'Cleave' and 'sanction' are both words whose contrary meanings apply in the same language. But 'table'...?

[call_copse]

Surely US English is more a sub-dialect of English rather than a separate language? In which case contranym stands...

[Philip Hudson]

Smorgasbord has been a Good Word in the recent past. When I think of a board as a table, I always recall this word. It seems to be a sort of synonym to buffet. I enjoy the transliteration from Swedish to English. It is butter-goose-table. Having enjoyed buffets from many places. Chinese put on a good buffet. Iranians do even better.