When people say there’s been an “𝑥 fold increase in such and such.” They mean such and such is 𝑥 times as big.
If you get something that actually folds like a sheet of paper, the amount of layers doubles each time. One fold = twice as many layers. Two folds = four times as many layers…
It’s not “two fold,” it’s “twofold”. And by extension, “threefold.” The “fold” here is not an independent word with its own meaning.
Yeah, 'number’fold words in modern English are actually linguistic hold overs from before ‘fold’ was a verb that meant to bend something along a crease.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/twofold
In a whole bunch of proto-English languages, fold or feald or fald or falt were all multiplicative suffixes (basically) attached to a number, which made a new word meaning to multiply by the number.
…
I’d be willing to bet this is also why the phrase ‘doubled over’ literally means that a person is bent, or folded at their abdomen.
You take the new meaning of fold (to bend along a crease) but replace it with the word that twofold literally means (doubled).
If you interpreted ‘doubled over’ as literally as OP is taking twofold, then the phrase should mean that a person was above something and then spontaneously grew a clone of themselves, or became twice as heavy or tall or something.
This is actually pretty interesting. I wish I could pin someone else’s comment. Thanks.
NP! =D
It took me way too long to realise you weren’t asserting an unorthodox answer to the nondeterministic polynomial time problem.
haha sorry!
My wrist is pretty messed up, and sometimes, it basically seizes up, so I went back to 15 yrs ago txt message dialect…
And then after posting it I realized, oh that could be confused with… ah fuck it time to ice my wrist and do more massage.
Same!
I read that as “NP != D” and spent far too long trying to figure out what the variables N, P, and D were in this context.
Your comment makes me think of P versus NP.
When I saw NP that’s where my mind went first… Hence my confusion lol
In case you’re not already a fan, I bet you’d like Robwords.
He’s also got a podcast with Jess Zafarris (available on YouTube).
Had not heard of him!
Thanks, I’ll give him a watch =)
Good luck! I’d be thrilled to know what you think.