tabula rasa
/ˈtæbjʊlə ˈɹɑːzə/ noun
Forms tabulae rasae tabulæ rasæ
- noun (philosophy, epistemology) A mind, as of a newborn, free of any impressions, notions, ideas, etc.
- noun Anything which exists in a pristine state.
Synonyms
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from Latin tabula rāsa (literally “erased tablet”), where the collocation comprised tabula (“wax-covered writing tablet”, noun) + rāsa, feminine singular of rāsus (“scraped, erased, cleaned (of text)”, participial adjective).
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “tabula rasa”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details