"table" in seven languages

Meaningtable

Spanish

mesa

/ˈmesa/

fem.other source · Latin MĒNSAM 'table'

TABULAM survives as tabla 'board, plank'.

French

table

/tabl/

fem.inherited

Italian

tavola

/ˈtavola/

fem.inherited

Tavola is the table you eat at; the piece of furniture is often il tavolo.

Portuguese

mesa

/ˈmezɐ/

fem.other source · Latin MĒNSAM 'table'

Romanian

masă

/ˈmasə/

fem.other source · Latin MĒNSAM 'table' (inherited)

Catalan

taula

/ˈtawlə/

fem.inherited

English

table

/ˈteɪbəl/

from Latin/French · Old French table

English → ItaliantabletavolaCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

Watch out: false friends

masa (Spanish) means “dough; mass” · masă (Romanian) means “table; meal”
Coincidence. Romanian masă 'table' is inherited from MĒNSAM, the source of Spanish mesa; Spanish masa is MASSAM 'lump'. Romanian has a second masă 'mass' (physics), borrowed from French masse.

TABULAM‘board, plank, tablet’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

Spanish kept Latin's real word for table, MĒNSA (losing the n, as Latin speakers already did); French and Italian promoted the humble plank.

English relatives: table, tablet, tabulate; mesa, commensal (MĒNSAM)