Around the time Canada's federal and provincial finance ministers were tabling their budgets for 2000-2001, we got an e-mail questioning what they were doing.

The letter had nothing to do with tax cuts or increased spending. Instead, it zeroed in on the world table — the verb we used to describe the action they had taken:

I'm confused. Definitions are being reversed.

I hear reports of legislation being "tabled" — in the context of it being put out on the table, being debated, dealt with.

My Webster's Dictionary defines it: "to postpone discussion of (a resolution, bill, etc.) until a future time or for an indefinite period."

According to Robert's Rules of Order (p. 154 in our edition) "table a motion" means "to put aside the pending question temporarily."

Please tell me why your news reports reverse the usage.

M Heinrichs

TABLE SETTING

The word table comes from the Latin term tabula, which means plank, tablet, or list. When it was first used as a verb in English around 1450, it meant "to enter in a table or list."

Within the next 300 years the word's meaning was extended to include "proposing or introducing something" by laying it on the table, especially legislation in Parliament.

TURN THE TABLES

Table was also used as a synonym for "propose" in the United States. By 1718, however, the word had new legs in the U.S. Congress, where it referred to matters that had been postponed indefinitely. This, of course, is the exact opposite of the original British definition.

In Canada and most other English-speaking countries, shelve was the preferred term for postponement. Which is why in 1855, for example, Charles Dickens wrote: "The Circumlocution Office, being reminded that my lords had arrived at no decision, shelved the business." (Little Dorrit, Chapter 10)

By the way the expression "turn the tables" has nothing to do with revolving definitions. It comes from the game of backgammon, and means a sudden reversal of fortune.

BILLIONS AND BILLIONS

When words have significantly different (or, in this case, opposite) meanings, there can be a smorgasbord of confusion around the table. Until the late 20th century, for example, billion meant a million million ($1,000,000,000,000) in the United Kingdom, and a thousand million ($1,000,000,000) virtually everywhere else. Those extra three zeroes really add up.

The $64,000 question, then, is what to do about table? The 1998 Canadian Oxford Dictionary offers some advice:

Because both of these contradictory meanings are in use in Canada, confusion may arise if the verb 'table' is used outside of the strictly parliamentary context, where the first sense should be understood.

As a result, it is better to use a different verb altogether, such as 'present' or 'postpone' as the context requires.

In stories about legislation being proposed by Ottawa or the provinces, therefore, CBC journalists are probably safe using the word table. In other cases, however, it might be wiser if the verb were shelved.