The Spanish word for table became a geological term — because flat-topped desert mountains looked like enormous tables to Spanish explorers.
A flat-topped hill or mountain with steep sides, common in arid and semi-arid landscapes of the American Southwest.
From Spanish mesa meaning table, from Latin mensa meaning table Key roots: mensa (Latin: "table").
The high-IQ society Mensa takes its name from the same Latin word — mensa means table, and the organization's founders chose it to suggest a round-table meeting of equals. Meanwhile, in the American Southwest, some mesas are so large they host entire towns — Mesa, Arizona has over half a million residents living on a mesa.