Two-fold, three-fold, n-fold

Posted by GPP October 30, 2003In reply to Two-fold, three-fold, n-fold posted by Ida Know on October 29, 2003

Anybody know the origin of the saying "two-fold"? Why not "one-fold"? If you have a two-fold increase do you have twice as much as before? If you fold something in half twice doesn't the thickness increase by a factor of 4?

And Yet, Ben Folds Five.

A 'fold' in a piece of paper, and 'n-fold', have separate (but related) etymologies. The 'fold' in two-fold, etc, means multiples, or times, etc. Thus two-fold simply means 'a multiple of two', not 'folded twice'.