online medical dictionary | definition of tabula

Origin: L.

1. A table; a tablet.

2. <zoology> One of the transverse plants found in the calicles of certain corals and hydroids. Tabula rasa [L], a smoothed tablet; hence, figuratively, the mind in its earliest state, before receiving impressions from without; a term used by Hobbes, Locke, and others, in maintaining a theory opposed to the doctrine of innate ideas.

(01 Mar 1998)