-fold

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-fold OE. -f(e)ald = OS. -fald (Du. -voud), (O)HG. -falt, ON. -faldr, Goth. -falþs, Gmc. terminal el. rel. to FOLD2 and equiv. to Gr. -paltos, -plasios, and more remotely with -plo- in Gr. haplóos single, diplóos double (L. duplus); appended to cardinal numerals and adjs. meaning ‘many’, orig. with the sense ‘folded in two, etc., folds’, ‘plaited in so many strands’. In OE. the adjs. were already used as sbs. and advs.

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