twofold

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English twofold, early twafald and twafalt,^[2] formed from English two + -fold.^[3][4][5] The OED and the Middle English Dictionary take it as apparently first a refashioning, after two, of twifold,^[6][2] which is from Old English twifeald (“double”), with cognates Old Frisian twifald and Old High German zwifalt.^[2][7][8] Etymonline traces it to tweofeald instead.^[4] In later use it may be formed independently from two and -fold.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Double: about 1175, as twafald in the Ormulum, of a twofold love of God and of man,^[2] and in the same period in the sense "double-minded, wavering".^[6]

Semantic evolution

Something in two folds or layers appears in the Ancrene Riwle about 1225,^[6] and in Middle English maken twofold meant to double a sin, to make it doubly grievous.^[2] As an adverb it meant "in two folds" from about 1394,^[6] a use that survived chiefly in Scotland for people bent double with age,^[6][3] and "to twice the amount" from 1526, in Tyndale's Bible.^[6] The modern abstract sense, composed of two parts or of two kinds, is first recorded in 1559,^[6] and Johnson (1755) simply glossed the word as "double", quoting Hooker, Spenser and Shakespeare.^[9] "Twice as great" in amount came only in 1812, in Crabbe.^[6] From the 1880s it was used for yarn of two strands.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – double, as twafald; figuratively, double-minded (obsolete).^[2][6]
• c. 1225 – consisting of two folds or layers.^[6]
• c. 1394 – adverb, so as to be folded or doubled.^[6]
• 1526 – adverb, to twice the amount.^[6]
• 1559 – composed of two parts or elements.^[6]
• before 1616 – of material objects, in Shakespeare's Macbeth.^[6]
• 1812 – twice as great in amount.^[6]
• 1880 – of yarn, of two strands twisted into one; as a noun from 1884.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having two parts or aspects; dual: The aim of the scheme is twofold: to save water and to cut costs.^[10][3][6]
2. Twice as great or as many; double: a twofold rise in rents.^[10][3][6]
3. Of yarn, made of two strands twisted into one.^[6]
4. (Scottish) Folded or bent double.^[6]

Adverb

1. To twice as much or as many: Sales grew twofold in a year.^[10][3][6]
2. (Scottish) So as to be doubled up or bent over.^[3][6]

Word family

• twofoldness

Related words

• two
• -fold
• manifold
• threefold

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins