"Tabula rasa. Lat.--'A shaved or smoothed tablet.'--His mind is a tabula rasa--it is a mere blank."

— MacDonnel, David Evans (fl. 1797)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson
Date
1797
Metaphor
"Tabula rasa. Lat.--'A shaved or smoothed tablet.'--His mind is a tabula rasa--it is a mere blank."
Metaphor in Context
Tabula rasa. Lat.--"A shaved or smoothed tablet."--His mind is a tabula rasa--it is a mere blank. The idea is taken from the waxed tablets of the ancients on which they made their memoranda with a sharp instrument called [end page] a stylum, with the other flatted end of which they afterwards erased what they had written.
Provenance
Searching "tabula rasa" in ECCO
Citation
Macdonnel, David Evans. A Dictionary of Quotations, in Most Frequent Use. Taken from the Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian Languages; Translated Into English. With Illustrations Historical and Idiomatic (London: Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson, 1797).
Theme
Blank Slate
Date of Entry
10/09/2006

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.