"three fold" should mean 8x not 3x
"three fold" should mean 8x not 3x
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.
In case you're not already a fan, I bet you'd like Robwords.
I think you’re thinking about it wrong.
The kind of fold here would be closer to Pleats not repeated bifolding.
Etymology is your friend.
But it won't pick you up at the airport.
Yes, but it's a good enough friend to tell you when your idea is stupid. Just not good enough to pick you up at the airport or help you move house.
It is possible to fold a sheet of paper into thirds and get three layers…
But that would be two folds, and arguably two layers if the area of the middle section is bigger than the outer sections added together.
But you can fold the corners of a piece of paper, like dog earing the page of a book to make a quick bookmark, and unfolding that is very far from doubling the apparent, top down surface area.
There are many ways of folding things that are not the very specific 'fold in half' or bifolding that you are envisioning.
Ever made a paper airplane?
Origami?
Folded clothes?
I agree, exponents are more powerful.
I also use 2 when I'm talking about orders of magnitude.
That’s only if you are folding the already folded paper. If you unfold after the first fold, then fold one of the halves in half, you’ll always end up with the number of folds plus one.
That still doesn’t match the intended meaning of the analogy though.
Must the fold be exactly in half?
What if I just fold a tiny corner over?That would still be two layers. Although folding all the corners would allow four fold to equal two.
It's a separate meaning of fold. Fifth definition for Merriam Webster.
fold
5 of 5 suffix 1 : multiplied by (a specified number) : times —in adjectives a sixfold increase and adverbs repay you tenfold 2 : having (so many) parts threefold aspect of the problem
Maybe they're thinking in non euclidean folds?