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tabula

Origin: L.

1. A table; a tablet.

2. (Science: 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.