foglia

Forms

foglia f (plural foglie)^[1] Early forms include fogla, folia, foia and foya, many of them northern.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin folia (“leaf”), recorded from the 4th century, the plural of Latin folium (“leaf”) used as a collective “foliage” and then taken as a feminine singular.^[3][4][5][1] foglio continues the neuter singular.^[4][6] The Latin cluster /lj/ became the palatal /ʎ/, written ⟨gli⟩, as is usual in Tuscan.^[7]

The feminine is French feuille, Occitan folha, Catalan fulla, Spanish hoja, Portuguese folha, Sardinian fòza and Romanian foaie.^[4][6] DÉRom traces both the masculine and the feminine types to a Proto-Romance neuter.^[8]

The Latin noun is traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *bʰolh₃yom (“leaf”), which would make it a cognate of Ancient Greek φύλλον (phúllon, “leaf”).^[1][9] De Vaan instead prefers a link with θάλλω (thállō, “to flourish”), from a root *dʰelh₁- (“to be green, sprout”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Uguccione da Lodi's Libro, a Cremonese poem of the early 13th century, for the leaf of a plant, also in the collective sense of foliage.^[2] DELI's first Tuscan record is in Paolo Zoppo, at the end of the 13th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the word for a fig leaf covering nakedness, for a thing of no value, for a sheet of parchment (like foglio), for edible greens and herbs, for a petal, and for a thin sheet of precious metal used in gilding.^[2] The metal sense is in the Tuscan Plutarch before 1304; through Venetian foia (1278) it passed into Turkish foya.^[3][5][1] Leaves carved or painted as ornaments are recorded from Giovanni Gherardi, before 1446.^[3]

Mangiare la foglia, “to see through a trick”, was first aver mangiato la foglia;^[3] Ugo Enrico Paoli explained it from the leaves fed to cattle: an animal that has started eating leaves is weaned, and so experienced;^[3] Lurati instead reads foglia as a written sheet, so that the phrase meant understanding a text.^[3] Tremare come una foglia is to shake with cold or fear.^[11][12]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses foglia in Cremonese.^[2]
• 1278 – Venetian foia “metal leaf” is recorded.^[5]
• Late 13th century – Paolo Zoppo uses foglia.^[3]
• Before 1304 – the Tuscan Plutarch has the sense “thin sheet of metal”.^[3]
• 14th–15th century – Cennino Cennini uses fogliame.^[3]
• Before 1446 – Giovanni Gherardi uses it for an ornamental leaf.^[3]
• 1721 – the learned fogliaceo is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A leaf of a plant, joined to the stem or branch by a stalk: foglie di vite;^[11][7][12] tremare come una foglia, to shake with fear or cold.^[11][7][12]
2. (botany) The organ of plants, of varied structure, for respiration, photosynthesis and transpiration.^[11][13][12]
3. (art) An ornamental motif imitating a leaf.^[11][7][12]
4. Mulberry leaves used to feed silkworms; the dry husks of maize once used to fill mattresses.^[11][14]
5. Uncut tabacco: tabacco in foglia.^[11][14]
6. A thin sheet of metal: foglia d'oro.^[11][7][12]
7. (mechanics) Each of the steel strips of a leaf spring.^[11][7][12]

Word family

• fogliame
• fogliare
• foglietta
• defogliare
• fogliolina

Related words

• foglio
• sfogliare
• sfoglia
• fogliaceo
• Latin folium
• French feuille

Usage notes

Common phrases are mangiare la foglia, to grasp a hidden intention, non muovere foglia, to do nothing, foglia di fico, something that hides what is shameful, and a foglia morta, of a plane or a football that drops suddenly.^[12][14][13] A regional foglia is a southern variant of boglio.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1675
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 720