from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Tabula \Tab"u*la\, n.; pl. {Tabulae}. [L.]
1. A table; a tablet.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Zool.) One of the transverse plants found in the calicles
of certain corals and hydroids.
[1913 Webster]
{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.
[1913 Webster]