Short for 'folio,' a page number or reference in a manuscript, book, or document; can also mean a sheet of paper folded once.
From Latin 'folium' (leaf). The abbreviation 'fol.' has been used in manuscript notation and academic citations for centuries to refer to specific pages or leaves of a book.
Medieval scribes wrote 'fol.' to mark each leaf of a manuscript they copied—'fol. 42' meant 'leaf 42 of this handwritten book.' The word is alive in 'folio,' the giant-sized books that Shakespeare's plays were first printed in!
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