follare

Forms

follare (first-person singular present fòllo or (traditional) fóllo, first-person singular past historic follài, past participle follàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian forms include folare and the participle folado, mostly from northern Italy.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *fullāre (“to tread; to full cloth”), derived from Latin fullō (“fuller, launderer”).^[4][5][6][1] A Late Latin verb fullare “to tread with the feet” is found in glosses.^[7]

The same verb is French fouler, Occitan folar, Catalan folar, Spanish hollar and Romansh fuler.^[5][8] The DEI calls it Pan-Romance except for Romanian, Sardinian and Portuguese, and derives Lombard and Friulian verbs from an extended Vulgar Latin *fullicare.^[7] The TLIO instead takes the Old Italian verb from French, pointing to the FEW for the close match of senses.^[2]

The word belongs to the north: Tuscany used the family of gualchiera for the same work, and the Medieval Latin and Italian records come from northern Italy.^[4] The origin of the Latin noun is unknown: de Vaan finds no root that would explain it, and Devoto saw no Indo-European connections.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval Latin follare is recorded at Venice in 1271.^[4] The first Italian record in the TLIO is the Venetian Diatessaron of the 14th century, where the verb means to trample hard and repeatedly, with the feet or with horses' hooves.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian trampling led to two figurative uses: to slaughter people without distinction, and, as a pronominal verb, to throng together in a place.^[2] REW derives folla “crowd” from the verb.^[8]

The technical sense of fulling woollen cloth is first found in Italian in the 1420 statute of the wool workers of Vicenza.^[4][3] The terms stayed northern into the early 19th century: in 1812 Bernardoni advised replacing follatura with Tuscan gualcire or sodare.^[4] In winemaking the verb came to mean pressing grapes and treading down the must.^[6][11]

Its derivatives also start in Medieval Latin: follator at Verona in 1319, Italian follatore before 1544, and fulatura at Piacenza in the 13th century, Italian follatura in 1770–71.^[4]

Timeline

• 1271 – Medieval Latin follare is recorded at Venice.^[4]
• 13th century – Medieval Latin fulatura appears at Piacenza.^[4]
• 1319 – Medieval Latin follator is recorded at Verona.^[4]
• 14th century – The Venetian Diatessaron uses follare for trampling.^[2]
• 1420 – The statute of the wool workers of Vicenza uses the verb for fulling cloth.^[4]
• Before 1544 – Italian follatore is recorded.^[4]
• 1770–1771 – Italian follatura is recorded.^[4]
• 1965 – Follatrice, a fulling machine, is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (textiles) To full woollen cloth: to soak and press it so that it shrinks and becomes felted and compact.^[6][12][11]
2. (oenology) To press grapes for the must.^[6][13]
3. (oenology) To push down the pomace floating on the fermenting must.^[6][13]
4. (figurative) To press, to urge on.^[6]

Word family

• follatore
• follatrice
• follatura
• follatoio
• follante
• folla

Related words

• follone
• gualchiera
• French fouler
• Latin fullo

Usage notes

The Treccani dictionary treats an archaic follare “to press close, to crowd”, formed from folla, as a separate verb; its participle follato meant crowded or, of things, dense.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1678
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ 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