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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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Hundredfold?
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2009/09/24 - 8:56pm
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Speak up mathematicians! What is the definitive meaning of the word hundredfold? Does it really mean a hundred times? Or could it mean the number you would get by folding one a hundred times. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc., which if I could figure out on my calculator has about 30 place settings.

Ron Draney
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2009/09/25 - 1:22am
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Even speaking as a former math major, it would never have occurred to me to interpret the "-fold" suffix in terms of repeated doubling. Buddhism's "Eightfold Way" (the first familiar expression I could think of using this construction) explicitly lists eight instructions for living righteously, not 256.

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