Where does “tinfoil” come from?
Tinfoil comes from English tin and English foil, where foil derives from Latin fullo (fuller, one who fulls cloth) and Latin folium (leaf), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European bʰel- (to swell or bloom).
tinfoil (English): A thin, pliable sheet of tin or an alloy of tin...
Definitions
- A thin, pliable sheet of tin or an alloy of tin...
Ancestry of “tinfoil”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | FOIL | To apply the FOIL algorithm to |
| 2 | Middle English | foilen | spoil a scent trail by crossing it |
| 3 | Old French | fouler | to tread, to stamp, to full; tread on, trample |
| 4 | Latin | fullo | fuller |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰleh₃- | bloom, flower |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰel- | to sound; to speak, roar, bark; shiny, white; to... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰōl- | — |
Words derived from “tinfoil”