folha

Forms

folha f (plural folhas)^[1] Houaiss records folla in the 13th century and folha and ffolha in the 14th; the spelling fôlha, with the accent the reforms later dropped, is also found.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin folia, the plural of Latin folium (“leaf”) taken as a feminine singular, written Old Galician-Portuguese folla in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] Houaiss notes that the sense “sheet for writing” is already Latin, and links it with the Sibyl writing her prophecies on palm leaves.^[2]

The same Latin plural is Galician folla, Spanish hoja, Catalan fulla, French feuille, Italian foglia and Romanian foaie; the Latin singular lives on in Italian foglio and in folho.^[5][1]

The Latin word has traditionally been derived from Proto-Indo-European *bʰolh₃yom (“leaf”), making it a cognate of Ancient Greek φύλλον (phúllon).^[1] De Vaan prefers *dʰolH-io-, which would relate it to θάλλω (thállō, “to flourish”) and Welsh dail (“foliage”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century from Cunha's medieval index.^[2] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it in a scornful phrase: if the tale proved false, they would not give hũa folla de col “a cabbage leaf” more for him.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the word already meant the leaf of a book as well as of a tree: an epigraph of the cancioneiros announces that en sta ffolha adeante “from this leaf on” begin the cantigas d'amigo of King Denis, and the Crónica Troiana has both senses.^[7] From the sheet of paper came “newspaper”, “list” and the payroll (folha de pagamento).^[2][1]

By analogy the word named thin flat pieces: blades of knives and swords, sheets of metal and wood, and the leaf of a door or window.^[2][8] Houaiss gives a separate article to folha “tinplate”, a shortening of folha-de-flandres.^[2][9] In north-eastern Brazil each crop of a sugar-cane field is a folha, and in the Alentejo the word meant a cornfield.^[10][11] Novo em folha means brand new.^[11][1]

The word passed into Kabuverdianu as fódja, Guinea-Bissau Creole fodja and Papiamentu foya.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – folla.^[2]
• 13th century, second half – hũa folla de col in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[7]
• 14th century – folha and ffolha;^[2][3][7] ffolha for a leaf of the cancioneiros.^[2][3][7]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[12]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it by Latin frons and folium.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais lists the sheet of metal, the blade of a sword and a printed sheet.^[14]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the Alentejo sense “cornfield” and novo em folha.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A leaf of a plant: As folhas da figueira já caíram.^[2][9][1]
2. A petal.^[8][15]
3. A sheet of paper; a leaf of a book or notebook, whose two sides are pages.^[2][9][1]
4. A newspaper.^[2]
5. A list; a payroll: folha de pagamento.^[2][1]
6. A blade of a knife, sword or saw.^[2][8]
7. A thin sheet of metal, wood or another material; tinplate, folha-de-flandres.^[2][9]
8. The leaf of a door or window.^[2]
9. (north-eastern Brazil) One crop of a sugar-cane field.^[10]

Word family

• folhagem
• folhar
• folharia
• folhear
• folhinha
• folhoso
• folhado
• folheto
• desfolhar
• esfolhar
• esfolhada
• mil-folhas

Related words

• desfolha
• folho
• foliáceo
• fólio
• Latin folium
• Galician folla
• Spanish hoja

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. folha
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. folha
4. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. folha
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 373
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. folla
8. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. folha
9. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. folha
10. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. folha
11. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 622
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. folha
13. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. folha
14. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 624
15. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. folha