刻著字的石板
這一組最貼近字的原樣：一塊扁平的板子，上面留著刻痕。因為刻進石頭的字改不掉，這塊板子後來也被拿來比喻「不會變的規定」。
stone tablet · noun · B1
a flat piece of stone or clay with words cut into it.
石碑；泥板；匾
核心畫面
Hold a `tablet` in your hand and it is always the same shape: a small flat slab, thin, with two smooth faces and a clear edge — something pressed or cut into a neat or disc. Ancient people cut words into it, chemists pressed medicine into it, paper makers glued a stack of sheets into that shape, and modern engineers put a screen on it. The material keeps changing; the flat little slab does not.
tablet 可以想成手上那一小片扁扁的板：薄、兩面平整、邊緣分明，像被壓出來或切出來的一塊小方板或小圓片。古人在上…更多收起
tablet 可以想成手上那一小片扁扁的板：薄、兩面平整、邊緣分明，像被壓出來或切出來的一塊小方板或小圓片。古人在上面刻字，藥廠把藥粉壓成這個形狀，紙廠把一疊紙黏成這個形狀，現代工程師則在這個形狀上裝了螢幕。材料一直換，那塊扁扁的小板子沒換過。From the word’s history
From Old French tablete, "small table", a diminutive of Latin tabula, "a board, plank, writing table". The word entered English around 1300 meaning a small portable slab you could write on, often wax-covered; the medicine sense arrives in the early 1400s and the pad-of-paper sense only in 1880 — each one reusing the same small-flat-board picture.
tablet 來自古法語 tablete「小桌子」，是拉丁語 tabula「木板、平板、書寫檯」的指小形（table 也是同一家的）。大約 1300 年進入英文時，指的是一小片可以隨身帶著寫字的板子，常常塗了蠟；藥片的意思到 1400 年代初才出現，便條本更晚，1880 年才有。每一次新意思，借的都是同一塊「小小的扁平板子」。
Online Etymology Dictionary, entry "tablet" (etymonline.com/word/tablet)
Four branches
壓成一小片的固體
把粉末壓實，出來的就是一片扁扁小小的東西——形狀跟那塊板子一樣，只是縮小到手指大，而且是拿來吞或拿來溶的。
medicine pill · noun · A2
Medicine pressed into a small hard piece for swallowing whole.
藥片；錠劑
一疊黏在上緣的紙
一疊紙沿著上緣黏起來，整疊拿在手上就是一塊扁平的方板——外形跟古人那塊寫字板一模一樣，只是這次可以一張一張撕下來。
notepad · noun · B1
A number of sheets of paper joined at the top, for writing or drawing on.
便條本；拍紙簿
裝了螢幕的平板
最新的一片板子：外形還是那塊拿在手上、可以在上面寫字的扁平板，只是表面換成了會發光的螢幕。名字沒改，因為畫面沒改。
tablet computer · noun · A2
a computer you can carry that has a touch screen and no separate keyboard.
平板電腦
原始詞典資料9 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
tabletnoun/ˈtæblət/
- 1
A slab of clay, stone or wood used for inscription.
- Also mentioned is the Rev. T. Stock, who has a tablet in St John's church [Gloucester] and "who with Raikes established the four original Sunday schools in this parish ... in 1780. From this small beginning sprung that gratuitous system of Christian instruction which has covered the face of England and Wales with schools."
- 2
lifestylereligionA short scripture written by the founders of the Baháʼí Faith.
- 3
A pill; a small, easily swallowed portion of a substance in solid form.
- Many people take vitamin tablets as a food supplement.
- 4
A block of several sheets of blank paper that are bound together at the top; pad of paper.
- Take a full-size writing tablet and follow these steps.
- 5
computingengineeringmathematicsA graphics tablet.
- 6
computingengineeringmathematicsA tablet computer, a type of portable computer.
- 7
A confection made from sugar, condensed milk and butter, produced in flat slabs, with a grainer texture than fudge.
- 8
rail-transportrailwaystransportA type of round token giving authority for a train to proceed over a single-track line.
- The latter's loss of time between Manakau and Levin was due to the mishap of dropping the tablet at Ohau, which entailed an out-of-course stop of 3 min. to recover it.
tabletverb/ˈtæblət/
- 1
To form (a drug, etc.) into tablets.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。