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fork

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also:förk.

English

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Pronged eating utensil — a fork (sense 1.1)
abcdefgh
8{{{square}}} black rook8
7{{{square}}} black king7
6{{{square}}} white knight6
55
4{{{square}}} black pawn4
3{{{square}}} white rook{{{square}}} white rook3
22
11
abcdefgh
Theknight forks the blackking androok. Thepawn forks the white rooks. (sense 7)
A small gardenfork (sense 1.2)

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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FromMiddle Englishforke(“digging fork”), fromOld Englishforce,forca(“forked instrument used to torture”), fromProto-West Germanic*furkō(“fork”), fromLatinfurca(“pitchfork, forked stake; gallows, beam, stake, support post, yoke”), of uncertain origin. TheMiddle English word was later reinforced byAnglo-Norman,Old Northern Frenchforque (=Old Frenchforche whenceFrenchfourche), also from the Latin.Doublet offourche andfurcate. Cognate also withNorth Frisianforck(“fork”),Dutchvork(“fork”),Danishfork(“fork”),GermanForke(“pitchfork”). Displaced nativegafol,ġeafel,ġeafle(“fork”), fromOld English.

In its primary sense of“fork”,Latinfurca appears to be derived fromProto-Indo-European*ǵʰerk(ʷ)-,*ǵʰerg(ʷ)-(“fork”), although the development of the -c- is difficult to explain. In other senses this derivation is unlikely. For these, perhaps it is connected toProto-Germanic*furkaz,*firkalaz(“stake, stick, pole, post”), fromProto-Indo-European*perg-(“pole, post”). If so, this would relate the word toOld Englishforclas pl(“bolt”),Old Saxonferkal(“lock, bolt, bar”),Old Norseforkr(“pole, staff, stick”),Norwegianfork(“stick, bat”),Swedishfork(“pole”).

Noun

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fork (pluralforks)

  1. Any of several types ofpronged (tined)tools (physical tools), as follows:
    2. Autensil withspikes used to putsolidfood into themouth, or to hold food down while cutting.
      Coordinate terms:spoon,knife,table knife,butter knife,steak knife,spork,foon,chork
      Hyponyms:salad fork,cocktail fork,crab fork,pickle fork,chip fork
    4. Any of several types of pronged tools for use onfarms, infields, or in thegarden orlawn, such as a smaller hand fork forweeding or a larger one for turning over thesoil.
      1. Such a prongedtool having a long straight handle, generally for two-handed use, as used fordigging,lifting,mucking,pitching, etc.
        Hyponyms:pitchfork,digging fork,spade fork,spading fork,garden fork
    6. Atuning fork.
  3. (by abstraction, from the tool shape) Afork in the road, as follows:
    1. (physical) Anintersection in aroad orpath whereone road issplit intotwo.
    2. (figurative) Adecision point.
  5. (by abstraction, from the tool shape) A point where awaterway, such as ariver or otherstream, splits and flows into two (or more) different directions.
    Antonym:confluence
  7. (metonymic, analogous to anyprong of a pronged tool) One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow.
    Synonyms:branch,prong(but the wordprong is usually reserved for the physical sense, and the wordtine is always so)
    a thunderbolt with threeforks
    thisfork of the river dries up during droughts
  9. (figuratively, decision-making) A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths.
    1. (metonymic) Either of the (figurative) paths thus taken.
  11. (figuratively, by abstraction, from a physical fork)(software development, content management, data management) A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally.
    1. (metonymic) Any of the pieces/versions (ofsoftware,content, ordata sets) thus created.
      Antonym:single source of truth,SSOT
    3. (software) The launch of one or moreseparatesoftwaredevelopment efforts based upon amodifiedcopy of an existingproject, especially infree andopen-sourcesoftware.
      1. (software) Any of the software projects resulting from the launch of such separate software development efforts based upon a copy of the original project.
        LibreOffice is afork of OpenOffice.
    5. (content management) The splitting of the coverage of a topic (within a corpus of content) into two or more pieces.
      A contentfork may be intentional (as from a schism about goals) or unintentional (merely from a lack of reorganizing, so far).
      1. (content management) Any of the pieces/versions of content thus created.
    7. (cryptocurrencies) A split in ablockchain resulting fromprotocol disagreements, or a branch of the blockchain resulting from such a split.
      Hyponyms:hard fork,soft fork
      • 2015 August 17, Alex Hern, “Bitcoin's forked: chief scientist launches alternative proposal for the currency”, inThe Guardian‎[1]:
        Known as a “fork”, the new version of bitcoin (dubbed Bitcoin XT) would support more transactions per hour, at the cost of increasing the amount of memory required to hold a full database of all the bitcoin transactions throughout history, known as the blockchain.
  13. (chess) Thesimultaneousattack of twoadversary pieces with one single attacking piece (especially a knight).
  15. (British, vulgar) Thecrotch.(Can we add anexample for this sense?)
  17. (colloquial) Aforklift.
    Are you qualified to drive afork?
  19. Either of the blades of aforklift (or, in plural, the set of blades), on which the goods to be raised are loaded.
    Get thoseforks tilted back more or you're gonna lose that pallet!
  21. (cycling, motorcycling, by abstraction from a pronged tool's shape) In abicycle ormotorcycle, the portion of theframeset holding the front wheel, allowing the rider tosteer and balance, also calledfront fork.
    Thefork can be equipped with a suspension on mountain bikes.
  23. Theupperfrontbrow of asaddle bow, connected in thetree by the twosaddle bars to thecantle on the other end.
    Synonyms:swell,pommel
  25. (obsolete) Agallows.
    • a.1680,Samuel Butler,Characters:
      They had run through all punishments, and just 'scaped thefork


Derived terms
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Some hyponyms (unsorted)
Descendants
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Translations
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pronged tool
gallows—seegallows
eating utensil
tuning fork—seetuning fork
intersection
one of the parts into which anything is furcated
point where a waterway splits
name of some river tributaries
figurative: point in time of making a decision
chess: simultaneous attack
computer science: splitting of a process
computer science: copying and separately developing a project
computer science: a separately developed project based upon a copy of an existing project
UK: crotch—seecrotch
forklift—seeforklift
blades of a forklift
bicycle or motorcycle fork
front brow of the saddle—seepommel
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
See also
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Verb

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fork (third-person singular simple presentforks,present participleforking,simple past and past participleforked)

  1. (ambitransitive) To divide into two or more branches or copies.
    A road, a tree, or a streamforks.
    1. (ambitransitive, computing) Tospawn a new childprocess byduplicating the existing process.
      • 2008, Mark G. Sobell,A Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux‎[2], Pearson Education,→ISBN:
        A parent processforks a child process, which in turn canfork other processes.
      • 2013, W. Richard Stevens, Stephen A. Rago,Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, 3rd edition, Addison-Wesley,→ISBN,page304:
        It appears that the shellforks a copy of itself and that this copy thenforks to make each of the previous processes in the pipeline.
    2. (ambitransitive, software engineering) To launch a separate software development effort based upon amodifiedcopy of an existing software project, especially infree andopen-source software.
      • 2007, Fadi P. Deek, James A. M. McHugh,Open Source: Technology and Policy, Cambridge University Press,→ISBN,page21:
        For various reasons, McCool's server project subsequentlyforked, leading to the development of the Apache Web Server.
      • 2015, Christian Birdet al., editors,The Art and Science of Analyzing Software Data, Elsevier,→ISBN,page77:
        Googleforked WebKit to create the Blink project in April 2013 because they wanted to make larger-scale changes to WebKit to fit their own needs that did not align well with the WebKit project itself.
    3. (transitive, software engineering) To create a copy of a distributedversion control repository.
      • 2015, Sajal Debnath,Mastering PowerCLI, Packt Publishing Ltd,→ISBN,page27:
        In this model, anyone canfork an existing repository and push changes to their personal fork.
  2. (transitive) To move with a fork (as hay or food).
    • 1844,John Wilson,Essay on the Genius, and Character of Burns:
      forking the sheaves on the high-laden cart
    • 2018, Maya Blake, chapter 2, inWhat the Greek's Money Can't Buy (Greek Bachelors), HarperCollins UK,→ISBN:
      Brianna curbed her pang of envy as sheforked her plain, low-fat, crouton-free saladniçoise into her mouth and shook her head.
  3. (transitive, British) Tokick someone in the crotch.
  4. (intransitive) To shoot intoblades, ascorn does.
    • 1707,J[ohn] Mortimer,The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […],→OCLC:
      I have known them couched up a Yard thick cover’d with an Hair-cloth and ſtirred only once a day, the Maltſer being always careful to throw the frozen outſides into the middle till the Corn begin tofork and warm in the Couch; after which time if it be not laid too thin, it will not eaſily freeze.
  5. (transitive)Euphemistic form offuck.
    They wereforking each other in the back room.
Derived terms
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Translations
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to divide into two or more branches
to move with fork
computer science: to spawn a new child process
computer science: to copy and separately develop a software project
to kick someone in the crotch
to shoot into blades, as corn
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

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Etymology 2

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Ultimately from Etymology 1, above, through use for various things with two or more branches. Attested in this sense from the 18th century.[1]

Alternative forms

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Noun

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fork (pluralforks)

The lowest part of the mineshaft is thesump, its bottom thefork.
  1. (mining) The bottom of asump into which the water of a mine drains.

Verb

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fork (third-person singular simple presentforks,present participleforking,simple past and past participleforked)

  1. (mining, transitive) Tobale ashaft dry.
    • 1836 [1808], Richard Polwhele,A Cornish English Vocabulary:
      Forking the water, is drawing it all out; and when it is done, they say, “the mine or the water isforked;” and “the engine is in fork.”

References

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  1. ^“fork (n.) sense II.11” under “fork,n.”, inOED OnlinePaid subscription required⁠, Oxford:Oxford University Press,June 2024.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Danish

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Etymology

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FromOld Norseforkr(“boathook”), fromLatinfurca(“fork, pitchfork”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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fork c (singular definiteforken,plural indefiniteforke)

  1. (two-pronged)fork,pitchfork

Inflection

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Declension offork
common
gender		singularplural
indefinitedefiniteindefinitedefinite
nominativeforkforkenforkeforkene
genitiveforksforkensforkesforkenes

Dutch

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Etymology

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FromEnglishfork in the computer science sense.Doublet ofvork(“fork”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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fork f (pluralforks,diminutiveforkje n)

  1. (computer science) afork, splitting-up of an existing process into itself and a child process executing parts of the same program

Synonyms

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Anagrams

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Middle English

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Noun

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fork

  1. Alternative form offorke
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