fol

Forms

fol (feminine fole, folle)^[1] In the Roland the word appears as fol, fols and foz, in Chrétien's Yvain as fol, fos and the feminine fole.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin follis (“bag; bellows”),^[4][5][6][1] which, used as an adjective, came to mean "idiot, fool" in Late Latin.^[6][7] Bloch and Wartburg explain the shift as a joke comparing a foolish person with a ball full of air, and date it to the 6th century;^[8] the DHLF compares the French word ballot.^[7] Etymonline gives a Medieval Latin adjective follus (“foolish”).^[9]

De Vaan defines the Latin noun as "bag, sack; ball, testicles", connects it with Proto-Celtic *bol- and finds no further etymology,^[10] while the DHLF reports a proposed onomatopoeic root Proto-Indo-European *bhol- for blowing and swelling.^[7] Its Romance cognates include Italian folle and Old Occitan fol.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Chanson de Roland, of about 1100, where the word is both noun and adjective for an unreasonable person.^[11][12][6] The DHLF dates the Roland 1080.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the beginning the dominant sense was a person out of his mind, and the FEW groups "mad", "foolish, imprudent" and "passionate about something".^[7][4] By the early 12th century the word could describe a thing, as in fole pöur "mad fear" in the Voyage of Saint Brendan.^[6] The AND records a wide range of further senses, from ignorant, frivolous and rash to wicked, heretical, slanderous and lewd, and of animals wild or untrained.^[13]

The Latin sense "bellows" survived from the first quarter of the 12th century to 1561, mostly for a smith's bellows, and Old French also had fol de la coille "scrotum" once.^[5][4] In chess the word named the piece now called the bishop from Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose on, replacing aufin;^[6] Montaigne used fol for a court jester in 1580.^[6] The modern French word is fou, with fol kept before a vowel and in set phrases.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – fol and fols in the Chanson de Roland.^[11][12][6]
• 1100–1125 – fol in the fragment of a Roman d'Alexandre from Franche-Comté.^[14]
• 1113–1119 – the first Anglo-Norman record cited by the AND.^[13]
• early 12th century – fole pöur in the Voyage of Saint Brendan; the same text has fols "bellows".^[6][5]
• c. 1177 – fol, fos and fole in Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain.^[3]
• 1275–1280 – the chess piece in the Roman de la Rose.^[6]
• 1580 – a court jester, in Montaigne.^[6]
• 1613 – fou for the chess piece.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. mad, insane.^[1][13][4]
2. foolish, silly, unwise.^[1][13]
3. rash, reckless; wicked.^[13]
4. lewd, wanton.^[13]
5. (of animals) wild, untrained.^[13]

Noun

1. a madman.^[6][7]
2. a fool, an idiot; a rogue.^[13]
3. (chess) the piece now called the bishop.^[6][13]
4. a bellows.^[5][15]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word fol and first cites it from 1113–1119; its senses include a congenital idiot or born fool, a nickname for an unfaithful woman and, as a feminine noun, a loose woman.^[13] The sense "bellows" appears in England under the spelling fou, from 1121–1125.^[15] Middle English fol is from the Old French word,^[16] and so is the English word fool, recorded from the early 13th century.^[9]

Word family

• folie
• folement

Descendants

• Middle French fol (→ French fou, French fol)^[1]
• Norman fo^[1]
• Middle English fol (borrowed; → English fool)^[16][9]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch heads the word fol (adjective and noun) apart from fol "beech";^[17][18] the DEAF treats the adjective as fol¹ and the bellows as fol³,^[11][5] and the AND has fol and fou.^[13][15] The DEAF's fol², "greyish (?)" of a horse, recorded once in an Anglo-Norman glossary of the late 13th century, has another, uncertain origin.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Stein, Achim; Kunstmann, Pierre; Gleßgen, Martin-D., eds., Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam, version 4 (lemmatised corpus of Old French texts, after A. Dees), Universität Stuttgart, github.com/michaniets/NCA (texts by DEAF siglum), p. RolS
3. ^ a b UD Old French PROFITEROLE and UD Middle French PROFITEROLE treebanks, Universal Dependencies (from the SRCMF and the Base de français médiéval; texts by DEAF siglum), p. YvainF
4. ^ a b c d Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3:688
5. ^ a b c d e Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. fol3
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
7. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fou
8. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 311
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. follis
11. ^ a b c Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. fol1
12. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. RolMoign
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. fol 1
14. ^ Rainsford, Thomas (2025), Old Gallo-Romance Corpus, github (the earliest Gallo-Romance texts, lemmatised; texts by siglum), p. AlexAlbZ
15. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. fou 2
16. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
17. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:1998
18. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:1997
19. ^ Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. fol2