Meaning

verb hammer into thin flat foils

verb decorate with leaves

verb coat or back with metal foil

originLearned borrowing from Latin foliātus (“having leaves, leafy, leaved”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), a participial adjective derived from folium (“leaf; (Late Latin) leaf or sheet of paper”) + -ātus (participial adjective-forming suffix) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“blossom, flower”) or *dʰelh₁- (“to be green”)).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0