tabula rasa

See also: tábula rasa

English

Etymology

From Latin tabula (“tablet”) + rāsa, feminine singular of rāsus (“scraped, erased”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

Noun

tabula rasa (usually uncountable, plural tabulae rasae or tabulæ rasæ)

1. (uncountable) The idea that the mind comes into this world as a "blank slate".
2. (countable) Anything which exists in a pristine state.
   • 1975 October 27, Aaron Latham, “John Connally on the Comeback Road”, in New York, volume 8, number 43, page 47–48:

     In his quest for rehabilitation, Connally is counting on the newspapers' behaving as they normally do: becoming tabulae rasae every 24 hours.

Translations

the idea that the mind comes into the world as a blank state

• Danish: ubeskrevet blad n
• Dutch: onbeschreven blad n
• Finnish: tyhjä taulu, tabula rasa
• French: tabula rasa (fr) f
• Icelandic: óskrifuð tafla f, óskrifað blað n
• Italian: tabula rasa f

• Japanese: 白紙状態 (hakushi jōtai)
• Korean: 백지상태 (ko) (baekjisangtae)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ubeskrevet blad n, tabula rasa (no) m

• Polish: tabula rasa (pl) f
• Portuguese: tábula rasa f
• Turkish: boş levha

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Italian

Etymology

From Latin tabula (“tablet”) + rāsa, feminine singular of rāsus (“scraped, erased”).

Noun

tabula rasa f (invariable)

1. tabula rasa (all senses)

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Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

tabula rasa m

1. tabula rasa (all senses)

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Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin tabula rasa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈta.bu.la ˈra.za/
• Rhymes: -aza

Noun

tabula rasa f (indeclinable)

1. (philosophy) tabula rasa (the idea that the mind comes into the world as a blank state)

Further reading

• tabula rasa in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• tabula rasa in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Spanish

Noun

tabula rasa f (uncountable)

1. tabula rasa

Further reading

• “tabula rasa”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014