Old English tabule 'flat slab, inscribed tablet', from Latin tabula 'plank, tablet, list', reinforced in Middle English by Old French table.

• The earliest examples of the word, from Latin tabula, referred to a flat board, slab, or surface, and it did not grow legs until around 1300. One of the first meanings was a gaming board—in the case of backgammon the plural tables was used, because its board has two folding halves. Although this meaning had died out by the mid 18th century it is preserved in the expression turn the tables, which arose from the common practice of turning the board round between games so that a player had to play from what had previously been their opponent's position. The early sense of table is also found in tablet (Middle English) for a small slab of stone. The notion of a compressed drug or confection in the shape of a lozenge dates from the late 16th century. The word tabloid (late 19th century), based on tablet, was originally the proprietary name of a medicine sold in tablets; the term then came to denote any small medicinal tablet of any brand. The application of tabloid to a newspaper (early 20th century) is from the notion of the stories being concentrated into an easily digestible form. Table d′hôte adopted from French in the early 17th century is literally ‘host's table’. The term originally described a table in a hotel or restaurant where all guests ate together, which led to its use for a meal served there at a stated time and for a fixed price. See also carpet