英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

borage [borage 词源字典]: borage: [13] The plant-name borage comes via Old French bourrache from Latin borrāgo. Various words have been advanced as an ultimate source, including late Latin burra ‘shaggy cloth’, on account of its hairy leaves, but in view of the fact that the Arabs used the plant medicinally to induce sweating, the likeliest contender is Arabic abū ‘āraq, literally ‘father of sweat’.
[borage etymology, borage origin, 英语词源]
brusque: brusque: [17] Brusque comes ultimately from the name of an unpleasant spiky shrub, the butcher’s broom, which instead of normal branches and leaves has twigs flattened into a leaflike shape, with at their ends stiff spines. The term for this in Vulgar Latin was *bruscum, which, passing into Italian as brusco, came to be used as an adjective, meaning ‘sharp, tart’. French borrowed it as brusque ‘lively, fierce’, and passed it on to English. It seems likely that English brisk [16] is derived from it.
=> brisk
card: card: [16] English borrowed card from French carte, for some unknown reason changing t to d in the process. The French word (source also of English carton) came from Latin charta, which originally denoted ‘leaf of the papyrus plant’; and since papyrus leaves were used for making paper, the word in due course came to mean ‘paper’ (Latin charta also gave English chart and charter). The Latin word in turn came from Greek khártēs, which is probably of Egyptian origin.
=> carton, chart, charter, discard
caterpillar: caterpillar: [15] Etymologically, a caterpillar is a ‘hairy cat’. The word comes ultimately from late Latin *catta pilōsa: catta is the source of English cat, while pilōsus ‘hairy’ is a derivative of Latin pilus ‘hair’, from which English gets pile of a carpet. In Old French *catta pilōsa became chatepelose, which passed into English as catyrpel.

The present-day form arose in the 16th century, probably from association with the now obsolete piller ‘plunderer’ (related to English pillage) – caterpillars being regarded, of course, as plunderers of leaves. The notion that caterpillars resemble small furry mammals is also reflected in such names as pussmoth and woolly bear.
=> cat, pile
chlorine: chlorine: [19] Chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas, and was named for its colour. The term was coined by the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy in 1810, from the Greek khlōrós ‘greenishyellow’. Of other words containing this element, chlorophyll [19] too was based on the notion of colour (in reference to the green colouring matter of leaves: the Greek elements literally mean ‘green leaf’), but chloroform [19], originally French, is a secondary formation based ultimately on chlorine (since it was originally regarded as a trichloride of formyl).
=> yellow
cinder: cinder: [OE] Despite the similarity of form and meaning, cinder has no etymological connection with French cendre (which comes from Latin cinis ‘ashes’, and is thus related to English incinerate and cineraria, a plant so named because of the grey down on its leaves). It is a Germanic word, related to German sinter ‘deposit formed by evaporation’ (itself borrowed into English in the 18th century), and from Old English times until the 16th century was usually spelled with an initial s-; the c- is an adoption from French cendre.

The name of the fairy-tale character Cinderella is a translation and adaptation of French cendrillon, originally a generic term for any downtrodden kitchen maid who spent much of her time among the cendres of the hearth.
cocaine: cocaine: [19] Cocaine is made from the dried leaves of the coca bush, a plant native to the Andes, and its name was formed (perhaps originally in French, as cocaïne) from the plant’s name. That was a local name, Quechua koka, probably from the Aymara language of Bolivia and Peru, and it reached Europe in the 16th century by way of Spanish coca.
dandelion: dandelion: [13] Dandelion means literally ‘lion’s tooth’. It was borrowed from French dent-de-lion, which itself was a translation of medieval Latin dēns leōnis. It was presumably so called from the toothlike points of its leaves (although some have speculated that the name comes from the long taproot). The plant has a variety of local dialectal names, many of them (clock, farmer’s clocks, schoolboy’s clock, telltime, time flower) reflecting the traditional practice of telling the time by blowing off all the plant’s tufted seeds (the number of puffs needed indicates the hour). Piss-a-bed, like its French counterpart pissenlit, betrays the plant’s diuretic properties.
=> dentist, lion
decay: decay: [15] The notion underlying decay and its close relative decadence is of a ‘falling off’ from a condition of health or perfection. Decay comes from Old Northern French decair, a descendant of Vulgar Latin *dēcadere, which in turn came from Latin dēcidere, a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘down, off, away’ and cadere ‘fall’ (source of English case and a wide range of related words). Decadence [16] was acquired via the medieval derivative dēcadentia. To the same word-family belongs deciduous [17], from Latin dēciduus, literally denoting the ‘falling off’ of leaves from trees.
=> accident, case, chance, decadence, deciduous
exit: exit: [16] Ultimately, exit is the same word as English issue. Both come from Latin exīre, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and īre ‘go’. This Latin verb, which can be traced back to an Indo-European base *ei-, also produced English coitus [18], obituary, and transient (as well as the French future tense irai ‘will go’). The earliest use of exit in English was as a stage direction (it means literally ‘he or she goes out’ in Latin). The sense ‘way out’ is a late 17th-century development, the more concrete ‘door by which one leaves’ as recent as the late 19th century.
=> coitus, obituary, transient
fern: fern: [OE] Fern is a fairly widespread Indo- European word, represented among the other West Germanic languages by German farn and Dutch varen. It comes ultimately from Indo- European *porno-. This also produced Sanskrit parnám, which meant ‘feather’ as well as ‘leaf’, suggesting that the fern may have been named originally from the feathery leaves of some species.
mildew: mildew: [OE] Mildew originally meant ‘honeydew’ (which is a sort of sticky substance exuded by aphids and similar insects on to leaves). It is a compound noun formed in the prehistoric Germanic period from *melith ‘honey’ (a relative of Latin mel ‘honey’, source of English mellifluous and molasses) and *daw-waz, ancestor of English dew. The metaphorical transference from ‘honey-dew’ to a less pleasant, fungal growth on plants, etc took place in the 14th century.
=> dew, mellifluous, molasses
palm: palm: Palm the tree [OE] and the palm of the hand [14] are effectively distinct words in English, but they have the same ultimate source: Latin palma. This originally meant ‘palm of the hand’ (it is related to Irish lám ‘hand’ and Welsh llaw ‘hand’), and the application to the tree is a secondary one, alluding to the shape of the cluster of palm leaves, like the fingers of a hand.

The Latin word was borrowed into the Germanic dialects in prehistoric times in the tree sense, and is now widespread (German palme and Dutch and Swedish palm as well as English palm). English acquired it in the ‘hand’ sense via Old French paume, with subsequent reversion to the Latin spelling. The French diminutive palmette denotes a stylized palm leaf used as a decorative device, particularly on cornices.

It was borrowed into English in the mid-19th century, and is thought to have formed the basis of English pelmet [20].
=> pelmet
plane: plane: English has five distinct planes, four of which are essentially the same word as plain. These come ultimately from Latin plānus, but preserve its ‘flat’ meanings rather than (like plain) its ‘clear’ meanings. Plane ‘flat surface’ [17] comes from Latin plānum, a noun use of the neuter form of the adjective; it is the plane from which aeroplane, and hence its abbreviation plane, were formed. Plane ‘carpenter’s smoothing tool’ [14] comes via Old French plane from late Latin plāna, a derivative of the verb plānāre ‘make level’, itself a derivative of plānus. Plane ‘flat’ [17] is an alteration of plain, on the model of French plan ‘flat’.

And plane ‘glide, soar’ [17] comes from French planer, a derivative of plan ‘level surface’ (the underlying notion being of a bird soaring with level wings). The odd man out is plane the tree-name [14], which comes via Old French plane and Latin platanus from Greek plátanos, a derivative of platús ‘broad’ (source of English place, plaice, and platypus) – the reference being to its broad leaves. Platanus probably also underlies English plantain, as applied to the banana-like vegetable.
=> piano, plain; place, plaice, plantain, plate, platypus
plantain: plantain: Two entirely unrelated plants have the name plantain. Both get it from their broad leaves. One, an insignificant-looking weed [14], comes via Old French plantain from Latin plantāgō, a derivative of planta ‘sole of the foot’ (source of English plantigrade and possibly plant). The other, a tropical plant of the banana family [16], was originally named by the Spaniards plántano ‘plane tree’, a descendant of the same Latin source as produced English plane (which etymologically means ‘broad-leaved’). This was adopted by English and quickly altered to the more familiar plantain.
=> plan, plant; plane
port: port: English has no fewer than five distinct words port, all of them going back to the Latin stem port-, a descendant of the Indo-European base *por- ‘going, passage’ (from which English also gets fare, ford, etc). Based on this stem was portus ‘harbour’ (etymologically a ‘place by which one enters’), which was borrowed into English as port ‘harbour’ [OE].

It is thought that the nautical port ‘left’ [17] originally denoted the side of the vessel facing harbour. And port the drink [17] gets its name from Oporto (literally ‘the port’), the town at the mouth of the river Douro in Portugal through which port is shipped. From Latin portus was derived the verb portāre, which presumably originally meant ‘bring into port’, but by classical times had broadened out to simply ‘carry’.

This gave English the military verb port ‘carry’ [16], and also underlies deport [15], export [15], import, important, portable [14], portfolio [18] (etymologically a ‘carrier of leaves’ or papers), portly [16], portmanteau, report, and transport. Also from portus comes English opportunity. From the same stem came Latin porta ‘gate, door’, which reached English via Old French porte as port ‘gate’ [13].

It came to be applied in the 14th century to an ‘opening in the side of a ship’, and it is now most commonly encountered in the compound porthole [16]. Portal [14] and portcullis are among its descendants.
=> fare, ferry, fiord, ford; deport, export, import, important, opportunity, portable, portly, report, transport; porch, portal, portcullis, porthole, portico
predecessor: predecessor: [14] Etymologically, predecessor is first cousin to decease, but it has never taken on decease’s connotations of ‘dying’. Both go back to Latin dēcēdere ‘go away’ (a compound verb based on cēdere ‘go away’, source of English cede, concede, precede, etc), whose derived noun dēcessus ‘departure’ came to be used euphemistically for ‘death’ – whence English decease [14].

Combination with the prefix prae- ‘before’ with the derived dēcessor ‘leaver’ produced praedēcessor ‘one who leaves before’. Traces of this original meaning linger in English predecessor (acquired via Old French predecesseur) in the notion of ‘one who left office before the present incumbent took over’.
=> cede, concede, decease, precede, proceed, succeed
rocket: rocket: English has two words rocket. The older, and now less familiar, is the name of a plant of the cabbage family whose leaves are used in salads. It was inspired by the plant’s downy stems, for it goes back ultimately to Latin ērūca, which originally meant ‘hairy caterpillar’. This may have been related to ērīcius ‘hedgehog’, from which English gets caprice and urchin.

It passed into Italian as ruca, whose diminutive form ruchetta developed a variant rochetta – whence French roquette and finally English rocket [16]. Rocket ‘projectile’ [17] is ultimately an allusion to the shape of such objects. It comes via Old French roquette from Italian rocchetto, a diminutive form of rocca ‘spool’ – hence the application to the ‘cylindrical’ rocket. Rocca itself represents a borrowing from a prehistoric Germanic *rukkon, which also lies behind English ratchet.
=> caprice, urchin; ratchet
sedge: sedge: [OE] The sedge is etymologically the plant with ‘cutting’ leaves. The word goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *sagjaz, which was descended from the Indo-European base *sek- ‘cut’ (source also of English saw, section, segment, sickle, etc).
=> section, segment
tobacco: tobacco: [16] Tobacco was introduced to Europe from the Americas, and that is where its name came from too. It originated in a Carib word, and reached English via Spanish and Portuguese tabaco. What precisely the Carib word meant, however, is a matter of dispute. Some say that it referred to tobacco leaves rolled up into a cylindrical shape for smoking, while others maintain that it denoted a pipe for smoking the tobacco in.

The word has spread to virtually all European languages (French tabac, German, Dutch, Russian, and Czech tabak, Welsh tybaco, etc), and only a few remnants of alternative terms remain: Romanian tutun and Polish tytun, for instance, borrowings from Turkish tütün, which originally meant ‘smoke’, and Breton butun, which came from pety, the word for ‘tobacco’ in the Guarani language of South America (source also of English petunia [19], a close relative of the tobacco plant).
vignette: vignette: [18] A vignette is etymologically a picture with a border of ‘vine’ tendrils, leaves, etc round it. The word comes from Old French vignette, a diminutive form of vigne ‘vine’ (source of English vine and related to English wine). It was originally applied to decorations in medieval manuscripts, but it was then transferred to the border around pictures, and finally to the pictures themselves. The conscious link with ‘vines’ now became broken, and in the 19th century the term moved on to a ‘head-andshoulders photograph’ and (metaphorically) a ‘short verbal description’.
=> vine, wine
acanthus (n.): 1660s, from Latin acanthus, from Greek akanthos, from ake "point, thorn" (see acrid) + anthos "flower" (see anther). So called for its large spiny leaves. A conventionalized form of the leaf is used in Corinthian capitals.
aspen (n.): late 14c., from adjective or genitive form of Old English æspe "aspen tree, white poplar," from Proto-Germanic *aspo- (cognates: Old Norse ösp, Middle Dutch espe, Old High German aspa, German Espe), from PIE *apsa "aspen" (cognates: Lithuanian opuse). The current form in English probably arose from phrases such as aspen leaf, aspen bark (see -en (2)). Its leaves have been figurative of tremulousness and quaking since at least early 15c. (an Old English name for it was cwicbeam, literally "quick-tree").
aspirin (n.): coined 1899 by German chemist Heinrich Dreser (1860-1924) in German as a trademark name, from Latin Spiraea (ulmaria) "meadow-sweet," the plant in whose flowers or leaves the processed acid in the medicine is naturally found, + common chemical ending -in (see -ine (2)). Spiraea (Tournefort, 1700) is from Latinized form of Greek speiraia "meadow-sweet," so called from the shape of its follicles (see spiral (adj.)). The initial -a- is to acknowledge acetylation; Dreser said the word was a contraction of acetylierte spirsäure, the German name of the acid, which now is obsolete, replaced by salicylic acid.
Die Bezeichnung Aspirin ist abgeleitet aus "Spirsäure" -- alter Name der Salicylsäure und A = Acetyl; statt" Acetylirte Spirsäure, kurzweg "Aspirin". [H, Dreser, "Pharmakologisches über Aspirin (Acetylsalicylsäure)," in "Archiv für die Gesammte Physiologie des Menschen und der Thiere," 1899, p.307]
The custom of giving commercial names to medicinal products began in Germany in the late 19th century, when nascent pharmaceutical firms were discovering medical uses for common, easily made chemicals. To discourage competitors they would market the substance under a short trademarked name a doctor could remember, rather than the long chemical compound word. German law required prescriptions to be filled exactly as written.
autumn (n.): late 14c., autumpne (modern form from 16c.), from Old French autumpne, automne (13c.), from Latin autumnus (also auctumnus, perhaps influenced by auctus "increase"), which is of unknown origin. Perhaps from Etruscan, but Tucker suggests a meaning "drying-up season" and a root in *auq- (which would suggest the form in -c- was the original) and compares archaic English sere-month "August."

Harvest was the English name for the season until autumn began to displace it 16c. In Britain, the season is popularly August through October; in U.S., September through November. Compare Italian autunno, Spanish otoño, Portuguese outono, all from the Latin word. Unlike the other three seasons, its names across the Indo-European languages leave no evidence that there ever was a common word for it.

Many "autumn" words mean "end, end of summer," or "harvest." Compare also Lithuanian ruduo "autumn," from rudas "reddish," in reference to leaves; Old Irish fogamar, literally "under-winter."
axe (n.): Old English æces (Northumbrian acas) "axe, pickaxe, hatchet," later æx, from Proto-Germanic *akusjo (cognates: Old Saxon accus, Old Norse ex, Old Frisian axe, German Axt, Gothic aqizi), from PIE *agw(e)si- (cognates: Greek axine, Latin ascia).
The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which became prevalent during the 19th century; but it is now disused in Britain. [OED]

The spelling ax, though "better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, & analogy" (OED), is so strange to 20th-c. eyes that it suggests pedantry & is unlikely to be restored. [Fowler]
Meaning "musical instrument" is 1955, originally jazz slang for the saxophone; rock slang for "guitar" dates to 1967. The axe in figurative sense of cutting of anything (expenses, workers, etc.), especially as a cost-saving measure, is from 1922, probably from the notion of the headman's literal axe (itself attested from mid-15c.). To have an axe to grind is from an 1815 essay by U.S. editor and politician Charles Miner (1780-1865) in which a man flatters a boy and gets him to do the chore of axe-grinding for him, then leaves without offering thanks or recompense. Misattributed to Benjamin Franklin in Weekley, OED print edition, and many other sources.
bay (n.4): laurel shrub (Laurus nobilis, source of the bay leaf), late 14c., originally only of the berry, from Old French baie (12c.) "berry, seed," from Latin baca "berry." Extension to the shrub itself is from 1520s. The leaves or sprigs were woven as wreaths for conquerors or poets. Bayberry first recorded 1570s, after the original sense had shifted.
bifoliate (adj.): "having two leaves," 1817, from bi- + foliate.
bob (n.2): "short hair," 1680s, attested 1570s in sense of "a horse's tail cut short," from earlier bobbe "cluster" (as of leaves), mid-14c., a northern word, perhaps of Celtic origin (compare Irish baban "tassel, cluster," Gaelic babag). Used over the years in various senses connected by the notion of "round, hanging mass," such as "weight at the end of a line" (1650s). The hair sense was revived with a shift in women's styles early 20c. (verb 1918, noun 1920). Related words include bobby pin, bobby sox, bobsled, bobcat.
bugloss (n.): 1530s, from French buglosse, from Latin buglossa, from Greek bouglossos, literally "ox-tongued," from bous "ox" (see cow (n.)) + glossa "tongue" (see gloss (n.2)) . So called from the shape of its leaves.
bureaucracy (n.): 1818, from French bureaucratie, coined by French economist Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (1712-1759) on model of democratie, aristocratie, from bureau "office," literally "desk" (see bureau) + Greek suffix -kratia denoting "power of" (see -cracy).
That vast net-work of administrative tyranny ... that system of bureaucracy, which leaves no free agent in all France, except for the man at Paris who pulls the wires. [J.S. Mill, "Westminster Review" XXVIII, 1837]

bureaucrat, &c. The formation is so barbarous that all attempt at self-respect in pronunciation may perhaps as well be abandoned. [Fowler]
canker (n.): late Old English cancer "spreading ulcer, cancerous tumor," from Latin cancer "malignant tumor," literally "crab" (see cancer); influenced in Middle English by Old North French cancre "canker, sore, abscess" (Old French chancre, Modern French chancre). The word was the common one for "cancer" until c. 1700. Also used since 15c. of caterpillars and insect larvae that eat plant buds and leaves. As a verb from late 14c. Related: Cankered; cankerous. Canker blossom is recorded from 1580s.
cerulean (adj.): 1660s, with -an + Latin caeruleus "blue, dark blue, blue-green," perhaps dissimilated from caelulum, diminutive of caelum "heaven, sky," which is of uncertain origin (see celestial). The Latin word was applied by Roman authors to the sky, the Mediterranean, and occasionally to leaves or fields. As a noun, from 1756.
cigar (n.): 1730, from Spanish cigarro (source also of French cigare), probably from Maya sicar "to smoke rolled tobacco leaves," from si'c "tobacco;" or from or influenced by Spanish cigarra "grasshopper, cicada" (on resemblance of shape), from Vulgar Latin *cicala (source also of French cigale, Italian cigala). Cigar-box is from 1819; cigar-store from 1839; the wooden cigar-store Indian is from 1879, American English, but wooden images of feathered Indians or Negroes are mentioned outside tobacconists' shops in England by 1852, and are said to have been in earlier use on the Continent.
Blackamoors and other dark-skinned foreigners have always possessed considerable attractions as signs for tobacconists, and sometimes also for public-houses. Negroes, with feathered headdresses and kilts, smoking pipes, are to be seen outside tobacco shops on the Continent, as well as in England. [Jacob Larwood and John Camden Hotten, "The History of Signboards From the Earliest Times to the Present Day," London, 1867]
civic (adj.): 1540s, originally mostly in civic crown (Latin corona civica), a chaplet of oak leaves awarded to one who saved the life of a fellow citizen in battle, from Latin civicus "of a citizen," adjectival derivation of civis "townsman" (see city). Sense of "having to do with citizens" is from 1790.
Coca-Cola: invented 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., by druggist Dr. John S. Pemberton. So called because original ingredients were derived from coca leaves and cola nuts. It contained minute amounts of cocaine until 1909.
Drink the brain tonic and intellectual soda fountain beverage Coca-Cola. [Atlanta "Evening Journal," June 30, 1887]
Coca-colanization, also Coca-colonization coined 1950 during an attempt to ban the beverage in France, led by the communist party and the wine-growers.
France's Communist press bristled with warnings against US "Coca-Colonization." Coke salesmen were described as agents of the OSS and the U.S. State Department. "Tremble," roared Vienna's Communist Der Abend, "Coca-Cola is on the march!" [Time Magazine, 1950]
Coca-colonialism attested by 1956.
compost (n.): late 14c., compote, from Old French composte "mixture of leaves, manure, etc., for fertilizing land" (13c.), also "condiment," from Vulgar Latin *composita, noun use of fem. of Latin compositus, past participle of componere "to put together" (see composite). The fertilizer sense is attested in English from 1580s, and the French word in this sense is a 19th century borrowing from English.
dandelion (n.): early 15c., earlier dent-de-lioun (late 14c.), from Middle French dent de lion, literally "lion's tooth" (from its toothed leaves), translation of Medieval Latin dens leonis. Other folk names, like tell-time refer to the custom of telling the time by blowing the white seed (the number of puffs required to blow them all off supposedly being the number of the hour), or to the plant's more authentic diuretic qualities, preserved in Middle English piss-a-bed and French pissenlit.
deciduous (adj.): 1680s, from Latin deciduus "that which falls off," from decidere "to fall off," from de- "down" (see de-) + cadere "to fall" (see case (n.1)). Originally with reference to leaves, petals, teeth, etc.; specific sense of "trees whose leaves fall off" (opposed to evergreen) is from 1778.
defoliation (n.): 1650s, noun of action from past participle stem of Late Latin defoliare "shed leaves," from de- (see de-) + folium "leaf" (see folio).
dusty miller (n.): common name for auricula, 1825, so called from the powder on the leaves and flower; millers, by the nature of their work, being famously dusty.
effleurage (n.): "gentle rubbing with the palm of the hand," 1886, from French effleurage, from effleurer "to graze, touch lightly, touch upon, strip the leaves off," from ef- "out" (see ex-) + fleur as in the phrase à fleur de "on a level with," from German Flur "a plain, field, meadow" (see floor (n.)).
end-paper (n.): in book-binding, "blank leaves before and after the text of a book," 1818, from end (n.) + paper (n.).
exfoliate (v.): 1610s, transitive; 1670s intransitive; from Late Latin exfoliatus, past participle of exfoliare "to strip of leaves," from ex- "off" (see ex-) + folium "leaf" (see folio). Related: Exfoliated; exfoliating.
explain (v.): early 15c., from Latin explanare "to explain, make clear, make plain" (see explanation). Originally explane, spelling altered by influence of plain. Also see plane (v.2). In 17c., occasionally used more literally, of the unfolding of material things: Evelyn has buds that "explain into leaves" ["Sylva, or, A discourse of forest-trees, and the propagation of timber in His Majesties dominions," 1664]. Related: Explained; explaining; explains. To explain (something) away is from 1709.
fallow (adj.): "pale yellow, brownish yellow," Old English fealu "reddish yellow, yellowish-brown, tawny, dusk-colored" (of flame, birds' feet, a horse, withered grass or leaves, waters, roads), from Proto-Germanic *falwa- (cognates: Old Saxon falu, Old Norse fölr, Middle Dutch valu, Dutch vaal, Old High German falo, German falb), from PIE *pal-wo- "dark-colored, gray" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic plavu, Lithuanian palvas "sallow;" Greek polios "gray" (of hair, wolves, waves), Sanskrit palitah, Welsh llwyd "gray;" Latin pallere "to be pale"), suffixed form of root *pel- (2) "pale" (see pallor). It also forms the root of words for "pigeon" in Greek (peleia), Latin (palumbes), and Old Prussian (poalis). Related: Fallow-deer.
fig (n.2): "dress, equipment," 1823, in phrase in full fig; hence "condition, state of preparedness" (1883). Said to be an abbreviation of figure (n.), perhaps from the abbreviation of that word in plate illustrations in books, etc. According to others, from the fig leaves of Adam and Eve. Related: Figgery.
foliage (n.): mid-15c., "representation of leaves or branches" (as an ornamental design), from Middle French feuillage, from Old French feuille "leaf, foliage" (see foil (n.)). The form has altered 17c. by influence of Latin folium or its derivatives in English.
foliate (v.): 1660s (implied in foliated), "to apply silver leaf," from Medieval Latin foliatus "leaved, leafy," from Latin folium "a leaf" (see folio). Meaning "put forth leaves" is from 1775. Related: Foliated; foliating.
folic (adj.): 1941, in folic acid, coined from Latin folium "a leaf" (see folio) + -ic. So called for its abundance in green leaves, such as those of spinach.