Table (furniture)

Structure of a prototypical table, resembling a Parsons table design

A table is an item of furniture with a flat top and one or more legs, used as a surface for working at or on which to place things.[1][2] Some common types of table are the dining room table, which is used for seated persons to eat meals; the coffee table, which is a low table used in living rooms to display items or serve refreshments; and the bedside table, which is used to place an alarm clock and a lamp.

Common design elements include:

Etymology

Look up table in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The term table is derived from a merger of French table and Old English tabele, both ultimately from the Latin word tabula, "a board, plank, flat top piece". In Late Latin, tabula took over the meaning previously reserved to mensa (preserved in Spanish and Portuguese mesa "table"). In Old English, the word was bord, replaced by table for this meaning.[3]

Shape, height, and function

Tables come in a wide variety of materials, shapes, and heights dependent upon their origin, style, and intended use. Many tables are made of wood or wood-based products; some are made of other materials including metal and glass. Most tables are composed of a flat surface and one or more supports (legs). A table with a single, central foot is a pedestal table. Long tables often have extra legs for support.

Table tops can be in virtually any shape, although rectangular, square, round (e.g. the round table), and oval tops are the most frequent. Others have higher surfaces for personal use while either standing or sitting on a tall stool.

Many tables have tops that can be adjusted to change their height, position, shape, or size, either with foldable, sliding or extensions parts that can alter the shape of the top. Some tables are entirely foldable for easy transportation, e.g. camping. Small tables in trains and aircraft may be fixed or foldable, although they are sometimes considered as simply convenient shelves rather than tables.

Tables can be freestanding or designed for placement against a wall. Tables designed to be placed against a wall are known as console tables (French: console, "support bracket") and may be bracket-mounted (traditionally), like a shelf, or have legs, which sometimes imitate the look of a bracket-mounted table.

Types

A combination of a table with two benches (picnic table) as often seen at camping sites and other outdoor facilities
A formally laid table, set with a dinner service

Tables of various shapes, heights, and sizes are designed for specific uses:

Specialized types

Historically, various types of tables have been popular for other uses:

Standards for design, functionality and safety

History

Large 17th-century English folding tables

Some very early tables were made and used by the Egyptians, and were little more than stone platforms used to keep objects off the floor. They were not used for seating people. Food and drinks were usually put on large plates deposed on a pedestal for eating. The Egyptians made use of various small tables and elevated playing boards. The Chinese also created very early tables in order to pursue the arts of writing and painting.

The Greeks and Romans made more frequent use of tables, notably for eating, although Greek tables were pushed under a bed after use. The Greeks invented a piece of furniture very similar to the guéridon. Tables were made of marble or wood and metal (typically bronze or silver alloys), sometimes with richly ornate legs. Later, the larger rectangular tables were made of separate platforms and pillars. The Romans also introduced a large, semicircular table to Italy, the mensa lunata.

Furniture during the Middle Ages is not as well known as that of earlier or later periods, and most sources show the types used by the nobility. In the Eastern Roman Empire, tables were made of metal or wood, usually with four feet and frequently linked by x-shaped stretchers. Tables for eating were large and often round or semicircular. A combination of a small round table and a lectern seemed very popular as a writing table.[4] In western Europe, the invasions and internecine wars caused most of the knowledge inherited from the classical era to be lost. As a result of the necessary movability, most tables were simple trestle tables, although small round tables made from joinery reappeared during the 15th century and onward. In the Gothic era, the chest became widespread and was often used as a table.

Refectory tables first appeared at least as early as the 17th century, as an advancement of the trestle table; these tables were typically quite long and wide and capable of supporting a sizeable banquet in the great hall or other reception room of a castle.

Gallery

Roman richly ornate table leg 
A chic table in an Iranian palace 
A wooden dining table and chairs 
Solid wood dining table 
Dining table by Antoni Gaudí 
Solid glass tabletop on an outdoors patio 
Outdoors table with a chessboard built into its top 
A modern Brazilian stainless steel table made with FSC-certified eucalyptus 
Modernist sidetable by Alvar Aalto 
A pedestal table surface can be folded down in a passenger train 
Carved wooden table from unknown century at the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City 
Metal dining table and chairs on the terrace 

Pedestal tables

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Table". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2012-05-18.
  2. ↑ "table, n.". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). 2008. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  3. ↑ Etymonline
  4. ↑ Heyward, p20

Further reading

External links

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