folium

English

Etymology

From Latin folium (“leaf”). Doublet of foil and folio.

Noun

folium (countable and uncountable, plural foliums or folia)

1. A leaf, especially a thin leaf or plate.
2. (geometry) A curve of the third order, consisting of two infinite branches having a common asymptote. The curve has a double point, and a leaf-shaped loop.
3. (uncountable) Synonym of turnsole (“purple dye”)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “folium” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

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Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *bʰolh₃yom (“leaf”), from *bʰleh₃- (“blossom, flower”), exact cognate of Ancient Greek φῠ́λλον (phúllon). Alternatively from *dʰolyom (*dʰelh₁- (“be green”)), whence Welsh dail and Middle Irish duille.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfo.li.um/, [ˈfɔlʲiʊ̃ˑ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfo.li.um/, [ˈfɔːlium]

Noun

folium n (genitive foliī or folī); second declension

1. a leaf (including a conifer's needle)
   • 79 AD, Pliny the Elder, “chapter 16”, in Naturalis Historia, book 16:

     Ex his pinus atque pinaster folium habent capillamenti modo praetenue longumque et mucrone aculeatum.

     Of these, the pine and wild pine have a leaf [that is] very thin and long, in the manner of hair, and tipped with a sharp point.

2. a petal
3. (Late Latin) a sheet or leaf of paper
4. (figuratively) trifle, thing of no consequence

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	folium	folia
Genitive	foliī folī1	foliōrum
Dative	foliō	foliīs
Accusative	folium	folia
Ablative	foliō	foliīs
Vocative	folium	folia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• acrifolius
• aquifolius
• exfoliāris
• folia
• foliāceus
• foliamen (Mediaeval)
• foliātum
• foliātus
• foliōsus
• latifolius

 

Related terms

• foliātilis
• foliātūra

 

Descendants

• Aragonese: fuella
• Aromanian: foalji
• Asturian: fueya
• Catalan: full, fulla; → foli
• Dalmatian: fualja
• → English: folio
• Franco-Provençal: fôlye
• Old French: fueille
  • French: feuille
    • → Turkish: föy
  • → Middle English: foil, foille
    • English: foil
• → French: folio
• Friulian: fuee
• Galician: folla
• Istro-Romanian: foľe

• Italian: foglia, foglio
• Norman: fielle
• Occitan: fuèlh, fuèlha, huelha
• Piedmontese feuj
• Portuguese: folha, folho; → fólio
• Romanian: foaie; → foliu
• Romansch: fegl, figl, föglia
• Sardinian: fógiu, fògia, folla, foza
• Sicilian: fogghia, fogghiu
• Spanish: hoja; → folio
• Venetian: fogia, foja, fogio, fojo
• Walloon: foye

References

• “fŏlĭum”, in Charlton T[homas] Lewis; Charles [Lancaster] Short (1879) […] A New Latin Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, Ill.: American Book Company; Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• “folium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• folium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• fŏlĭum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette, page 678/1
• “folium” on page 719/3 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)
• Niermeyer, Jan Frederik (1976), “folium”, in Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 439/2