Tab

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /tæb/

Definitions

1. A flap or strip attached to something, used for grasping, identifying, or opening it
2. A small protruding part or label designed for lifting, organizing, or identifying items
3. A thin, often folded piece that aids in grasping, marking, or separating objects

Etymology: The origin of "tab" is genuinely uncertain, and the leading candidates are all competing guesses. One is that it is a clipped form of "tabulate," "tabulator," or "tabulation," which would make the flap a shortened label for a list or index entry. Another proposal is more surprising: that it started as a shortening of "tobacco," pronounced in a northern English dialect, with the word then transferring to a small tag or label. A third suggests a link to the brand name Ogden's Tabs, a cigarette-paper or tobacco product whose name may have been shortened in everyday speech. The earliest recorded use dates from 1607, which shows the word was already in circulation by the early seventeenth century, though the first attestation alone does not reveal which theory is correct. Because the evidence is unresolved, no single story can be told with confidence, and the uncertainty itself is the most accurate account of its history.

Synonyms: label, tag, marker, sticker, identifier

Antonyms: blank, void, unlabeled, empty, unmarked