taborine, tabourine

[Fr. tabourin.] tambourine. tăb'-u-lạ ( pl. tab-u-la), s. [Lat.] *1. Ord. Lang .: A table; a flat surface. 2. Zool. (pl.): Transverse partitions in certain corals; horizontal plates or floors, extending from side to side acro the cavity of some corals, which they divide into chambers, one above another. tabula ras a, phrase . [Lat. A smooth waxed tablet, ready to receive any impre ion of the style.] Philos.: A term used by the Sensational philosophers of the seventeenth century to describe the condition of the human mind before it has been the subject of experience, in opposition to the supporters of the theory of innate ideas. The origin of the expre ion is probably to be found in Aristotle (de Anima, lib. iii., c. iv., § 14.)