Take the 2-minute tour ×  This could be just me, but at first
glance the word (phrase?) 人一倍 looks like it would mean "one's
own share of the work". I assumed 人 to mean one person, and 一倍
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 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?
share|improve this question add comment  3 Answers  up vote 12
down vote accepted  According to 大辞林, one of the meanings of 一倍
is as follows:   The first example it gives includes 人一倍, so
you're right that 人一倍 is the combination of and 一倍. The
surprising part is that 一倍 means 二倍!  As Wikipedia explains, for
much of the history of Japan, 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 disc