Etymology: Old English folde weak feminine = Old Low German folda , Old Norse fold < Old Germanic *foldôn- , *foldâ , probably related to *felþu field n.¹

Etymology: Old English falæd, falod, falud, fald, strong masculine, apparently corresponding to Middle Low German vālt, modern Low German falt, Dutch vaalt, East Frisian folt enclosed space, dunghill.

Etymology: Middle English fald, < fald-enfold v.¹; compare Middle Dutch voude (Dutch vouw), Old High German falt (masculine) (Middle High German valte, modern German falte feminine), Old Norse fald-r (masculine), falda (feminine) (Swedish fåll, Danish fold). Old English had fyld, *field < West Germanic *faldi-z of equivalent formation, but it did not survive into Middle English.

Etymology: Common Germanic reduplicating strong verb: Old English fealdan = Middle Dutch vouden (Dutch vouwen), Old High German faldan, faltan (Middle High German valten, German falten), Old Norse falda (past tense félt), Gothic falþan (past tense faifalþ) < Germanic *falþan, < *falþ < pre-Germanic *plt-, found in Lithuanian pleta I plait, Greek δίπαλτος, also διπλάσιος ( < *-pltiyos) double; according to Brugmann an extended form of the root pl- (in Greek ἁπλόος, simple, lit. ‘one-fold’) of which another extension appears in Greek πλέκειν, Latin plicāre to plait, fold. In Old English and early Middle English the forms are those of a strong verb; from 15th cent. onwards weak forms were developed, and the verb is now conjugated entirely as weak; compare Danish folde.

Etymology: < fold n.²