"puffed flounce, plaited border," c.1700, folk-etymology alteration (as if fur below) of falbala, from French falbala (17c., cognate with Provençal farbello), from Italian falda "fold, flap, pleat," from a Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *faldan, from PIE *pel- (3) "to fold" (see fold, v.). As a verb from 1701.