Meaning

noun an angular or rounded shape made by folding

noun a group of people who adhere to a common faith and habitually attend a given church

noun a geological process that causes a bend in a stratum of rock

originThe noun is from Middle English fold, fald, from Old English fald, falæd, falod (“fold, stall, stable, cattle-pen”), from Proto-West Germanic *falud, from Proto-Germanic *faludaz (“enclosure”). Akin to Scots fald, fauld (“an enclosure for livestock”), Dutch vaalt (“dung heap”), Middle Low German valt, vālt (“an inclosed space, a yard”), Danish fold (“pen for herbivorous livestock”), Swedish fålla…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0