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submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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...

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[-] [email protected] 83 points 6 months ago

It's not "two fold," it's "twofold". And by extension, "threefold." The "fold" here is not an independent word with its own meaning.

[-] [email protected] 58 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

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.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

This is actually pretty interesting. I wish I could pin someone else's comment. Thanks.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago
[-] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

It took me way too long to realise you weren't asserting an unorthodox answer to the nondeterministic polynomial time problem.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago
[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago
[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

When I saw NP that's where my mind went first... Hence my confusion lol

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

In case you're not already a fan, I bet you'd like Robwords.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Had not heard of him!

Thanks, I'll give him a watch =)

[-] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Good luck! I'd be thrilled to know what you think.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

He's also got a podcast with Jess Zafarris (available on YouTube).

this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2025
71 points (78.4% liked)

Showerthoughts

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