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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?
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words etymology
Why is the meaning of人一倍 opposite of what it seems to say?
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).
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snailplane is right about her explanation. Not sure about Nihongo but in
Mandarin, the confusing one is `一倍` and `二倍` is used interchangeably. Meaning
might be different at different context. So just read carefully.
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2013-04-17T13:03:47.077
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Snailplane-san is right. In Yedo era there were two words indicating multiple
number: 倍 and [層倍]{そうばい}. A single word 倍 means two times and a single word 層倍
does one time. 2倍 means 3 times and 2層倍 is two times.

In Meiji era there comes European mathematics and the above-mentioned way to
use of 倍 and 層倍 was banned.

Today we use 2倍 as two times. 3倍 means three times. But the old way to use of
倍 remains in some phrases, such as [倍]{ばい}にして[返]{かえ}す, [倍返]{ばいがえ}し and
[人]{ひと}の[倍]{ばい}[働]{はたら}く. Most of us have never heard of the word 層倍.

Just like you, many Japanese wonder about [人一倍]{ひといちばい}. I must study English
with sense of language like you. Good luck for your studying Japanese!
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