foglioso

Forms

foglioso (feminine fogliosa, masculine plural fogliosi, feminine plural fogliose)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin foliōsus (“leafy”), from folium (“leaf”) with the suffix -ōsus.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The TLIO derives it instead from foglia, and it can be read as a derivative with -oso.^[7][1]

The same Latin adjective continues in Romanian foios, Occitan folhos, Spanish hojoso and Portuguese folhoso.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Tuscan translation of Palladius from the first half of the 14th century, meaning “rich in leaves”: citrons to be stored should be picked at night con rami fogliosi, with leafy branches.^[7][10][2]

Semantic evolution

Tommaseo noted that fogliuto says more and suits trees better, while foglioso is used for smaller plants too.^[11] He also cites così foglioso campo from Dante's Convivio, where other editions read trafoglioso.^[11] In botany the word is a synonym of fogliato, and Sabatini–Coletti and Gabrielli mark it as uncommon.^{[2][12][4][13]}

Timeline

• 1340 – The Tuscan translation of Palladius has rami fogliosi.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. leafy, full of leaves: un arbusto foglioso.^[2][5][4][1]
2. (botany) Foliate, bearing leaves.^[2][12][3]

Related words

• foglia
• fogliuto
• fogliato
• Latin folium

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 104
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli