tafelmaat

Tafelmaat is a Dutch term that translates roughly to “table measure.” It is a historical and regional term rather than a modern, standardized unit, and its exact meaning varied by place and period. In the absence of a single definition, tafelmaat is best understood as a reference to measures connected to a table or flat surface.

In some contexts, tafelmaat referred to a standard dimension used in furniture making or carpentry, where the size of a tabletop or a wooden panel served as a practical reference point. In other contexts, especially in markets or counting practices, it described the amount of goods laid out on a table for counting or display, functioning as a local unit of quantity or area tied to the space on a counter or stall.

Because the value and application of tafelmaat were not uniform, historical sources often assign different numbers or interpretations to the term depending on town, era, and trade. Today, tafelmaat is encountered mainly in linguistic studies, historical metrology, and discussions of material culture, rather than as a current measurement standard.

In modern Dutch, official units such as meters or square meters are used, and tafelmaat is generally treated as a historical curiosity. See also maat, lengtemaat, oppervlaktemaat, and historical metrology for related concepts.