Foilage
/ˈfɔɪlɪdʒ/noun
An obsolete or variant spelling of foliage, meaning the leaves of a plant or collection of plants.
Did you know?Foilage belongs to the same Latin leaf-family that produced folio and foil, because thin metal sheets were once made by hammering metal into leaf-thin layers.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*bʰolh-
“Leaf or foliage; a reconstructed root associated with growing leaves.”
Classical Latin
Latin
folium
“A leaf; also a leaf-like sheet or page.”
Old French
Old French
foille
“A leaf, derived from Latin folium.”
12th–13th Century
Anglo-Norman/French
foilage
“Foliage or leafy covering; formed from foille with a collective suffix.”
Middle English
English
foilage
“Leaves or leafy growth; an established variant spelling.”
Modern English
English
foliage
“The standard modern spelling for the leaves of plants; foilage survives mainly as an obsolete or variant form.”