Etymology

defoliate

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Today it means: To remove foliage from (one or more plants), most often with a chemical agent. Full definition →

English foliate ← Latin foliatus ← Proto-Italic *foljom
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*de
  2. Proto-Indo-European*déh₁
  3. Proto-Italic*dē
  4. Latindē
  5. Latindē-
  6. Englishde-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*bʰleh₃-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*bʰolh₃yom?
  9. Proto-Indo-European*dʰelh₁-
  10. Proto-Indo-European*dʰolh₁yom?
  11. Proto-Italic*foljom
  12. Latinfolium
  13. Latinfoliatus
  14. Englishfoliate
  15. English todaydefoliate

From de- + foliate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.