Nearby Words

-fold

Origin

-fold

a native English suffix meaning “of so many parts,” or denoting multiplication by the number indicated by the stem or word to which the suffix is attached: twofold; manifold.

Origin:
Middle English; Old English -fald, -feald, cognate with Old Frisian, Old Saxon -fald, German -falt, Old Norse -faldr, Gothic -falths, all representing the Germanic base of fold1; akin to Greek -ploos, -plous (see haplo-, diplo-), Latin -plus (see simple, double, etc.), -plex -plex
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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-fold is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
Collins
World English Dictionary
-fold
 
suffix forming adjectives, —suffix forming adverbs
having so many parts, being so many times as much or as many, or multiplied by so much or so many: threefold; three-hundredfold
 
[Old English -fald, -feald]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

-fold
multiplicative suffix, from O.E. -feald, related to O.N. -faldr; Ger. -falt; Goth. falþs; Gk. -paltos, -plos; L. -plus. Crowded out in Eng. by Latinate double, triple, etc., but still in manifold (q.v.).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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