folla

Forms

folla f (plural folle)^[1]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from Italian follare (“to full cloth; to press, trample”), formed as calca is from calcare: the first sense of the word was “pressure”.^[2][3][4][5] Nocentini describes it instead as a Romance formation from a noun Vulgar Latin *fŭlla (“crush, trampling”), from *fŭllāre (“to wash by treading, trample”), and the same derivative is French foule, Occitan fola and Spanish huella (“footprint”).^[6][7] The open vowel of the Italian word matches the Spanish word, against the French one, recorded in 1304.^[8]

The verb follare continues the same Vulgar Latin verb, derived from Latin fullō (“fuller”), a word of uncertain origin;^[2][6] DELI notes that the family of words is northern, while Tuscany used gualchiera and its relatives for the fulling mill.^[2][6] Zaccaria thought the late appearance of the Italian word pointed to a loan from French or Spanish, or else to a Germanic noun for “fullness”;^[9][2][6] DELI and Nocentini give only the derivation from the verb.^[9][2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Florentine Ottimo commentary on Dante's Inferno (1334).^[3][6] DELI gives the sense there as a mass of things pressing on one point, and DEI records a 14th-century use for the pressure of too much food.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense grew out of phrases like resistere alla folla del popolo “to resist the press of the people” (Buonarroti the Younger).^[2] The sense “great number of things” is recorded before 1652, in Peregrini, and “crowd of people” in 1673, in Segneri, who wrote of a crowd at a church door where people were carried in by the push of those behind.^[2][10] Migliorini observed that in 17th-century Florence folla still meant only “crush, multitude”, while at Arezzo and Rome it already meant a crush of people.^[2] Sabatini–Coletti date the modern sense to the 17th century and “quantity of things” to the 14th.^[11]

In the wool and hat trades the word kept senses close to the verb: fulling, in the statutes of the Fabriano wool guild; dialectally, a fulling mill; and the vat of hot water in which hatters boil felt.^[10][8] The journalistic bagno di folla “walkabout”, a public figure's direct contact with the crowd, is modelled on French bain de foule.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1334 – Folla appears in the Ottimo commentary on the Inferno.^[3][2]
• Before 1652 – Peregrini uses folla for a great number of things.^[2]
• 1673 – Segneri uses folla for a crowd of people.^[2][10]
• 19th century – Folla names the hatters' vat for fulling felt.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A crowd or throng: a large number of people gathered in one place: Quando aprirono i cancelli, la folla si riversò nel cortile.^[4][14][11]
2. (derogatory) The masses, the common people.^[4][14][12]
3. (hyperbolic) A large group of people: una folla di parenti.^[4][11][12]
4. (figurative) A confused mass of thoughts, feelings or things: una folla di dubbi.^[4][14][5]
5. A mass of things pressing on a place; the pressure itself.^[4][2]
6. (hatmaking) The tanning water in which felt is boiled to make hats.^[4][10]

Word family

• affollare
• affollamento
• sovraffollamento
• sovraffollare
• sfollare
• sfollato
• sfollamento
• sfollagente

Related words

• follare
• calca
• French foule

Usage notes

The stressed vowel is pronounced either open or closed: /ˈfɔl.la/ or /ˈfol.la/.^[11][12][1] Fare folla means “to crowd together”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1678
9. ^ a b Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
10. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier