folto

Forms

folto (feminine folta, masculine plural folti, feminine plural folte, superlative foltissimo)^[1] An older form is fulto.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fultus (“propped up, reinforced”), the past participle of fulciō (“to prop up, support”).^[4][5][6][1] DELI notes that the Latin participle is not recorded with the Italian sense.^[4] Nocentini traces the meaning from “reinforced” to “thickened”.^[5] Prati and Devoto start instead from the sense “pressed, trodden down”.^[7][8] REW files the Italian adjective under infultus (“stuffed”) and lists Neapolitan forms meaning “deep” under the participle itself.^[9]

The origin of the Latin verb is unclear.^[10] De Vaan reports the comparison with Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx, “beam”) and Old High German balko (“beam”), from a possible Proto-Indo-European *bʰelg-, but finds it doubtful.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bono Giamboni's Florentine translation of Vegetius, before 1292, meaning “thick, numerous and close together”: armies should not go through spesse e folte selve (thick and dense woods).^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the word for dense things (before 1321), as in non han sì aspri sterpi né sì folti (Inferno 13).^[4][11] Old Italian also used it for crowded people and for pressing, aggressive attackers.^[2] The noun folto, the thickest part of something, is recorded from Luigi Pulci (before 1484).^[4] Old Italian also had folta “crowd” and affoltarsi “to crowd together”.^[7]

Tommaseo explained the word as describing things so close that they seem to hold one another up.^[11] The verbs infoltire (1660) and sfoltire (1948) were formed from it.^[5]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses folte selve.^[2][4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it in the sense “dense”.^[4]
• Before 1484 – Luigi Pulci uses the noun folto.^[4]
• 1660 – Infoltire is first recorded.^[5]
• 1948 – Sfoltire is first recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. dense, thick: made of elements set close together: una folta siepe di rovi.^{[6][12][13][1]}
2. Numerous, large (of a group): una folta delegazione di sindacalisti.^[6][12]
3. Crowded, full (with di): una sala folta di invitati.^[6][12][14]
4. (uncommon) Dense, thick (of fog, darkness): un fumo folto.^[6][12][13]

Noun

1. The thickest or innermost part of something: si nascose nel folto del canneto.^{[6][13][14][1]}

Word family

• infoltire
• sfoltire
• sfoltimento
• infoltimento
• sfoltita
• sfoltitrice
• foltezza
• foltamente
• affoltare
• folta

Related words

• folcire
• fulcro
• Latin fulciō

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e 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 Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 452
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 187
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b 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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse