Why is the meaning of人一倍 opposite of what it seems to say?


This could be just me, but at first glance the word (phrase?) 人一倍【ひといちばい】
looks like it would mean "one's own share of the work". I assumed 人 to mean
one person, and 一倍【いちばい】 means "one share, one amount". I was a little
confused to find out that 人一倍 actually means "more than others, redoubled,
unusual". (For example, 人一倍働く【ひといちばいはたら】 means " to work twice as hard as
others".)

Does anyone have any insight or explanation for this, or have I completely
misunderstood the whole thing?




According to
[大辞林](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E4%B8%80%E5%80%8D&stype=0&dtype=0&dname=0ss),
one of the meanings of 一倍 is as follows:

> ある数量を二つ合わせた数量。二倍。倍。

The first example it gives includes `人一倍`, so you're right that `人一倍` is the
combination of `人` and `一倍`. The surprising part is that `一倍` means `二倍`!

As [Wikipedia](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%80%8D) explains, for much of
the history of Japan, `倍` was a suffix indicating a number of times _in
addition_ to one. In other words, `一倍`, `二倍`, and `三倍` used to mean 2x, 3x,
and 4x. In modern Japanese, they generally mean 1x, 2x, and 3x, but as you've
discovered, the old meaning of `倍` is not entirely gone--it's preserved in
words like `人一倍`.

You may also want to read the answers on this [similar question in
Japanese](http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/1230733.html).




According to
[大辞林](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E4%B8%80%E5%80%8D&stype=0&dtype=0&dname=0ss),
one of the meanings of 一倍 is as follows:

> ある数量を二つ合わせた数量。二倍。倍。

The first example it gives includes `人一倍`, so you're right that `人一倍` is the
combination of `人` and `一倍`. The surprising part is that `一倍` means `二倍`!

As [Wikipedia](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%80%8D) explains, for much of
the history of Japan, `倍` was a suffix indicating a number of times _in
addition_ to one. In other words, `一倍`, `二倍`, and `三倍` used to mean 2x, 3x,
and 4x. In modern Japanese, they generally mean 1x, 2x, and 3x, but as you've
discovered, the old meaning of `倍` is not entirely gone--it's preserved in
words like `人一倍`.

You may also want to read the answers on this [similar question in
Japanese](http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/1230733.html).

