furca

From New Latin furca (“two-pronged fork”)

furca (plural furca or furcae)

1. (zoology) A forked structure, a fork-like part.
   • 2023 July, A.V. Izrailskaia, V.V. Besprozvannykh, “Neodiplostomum cf. seoulense (Seo, Rim, Lee, 1964) sensu Pyo et al., 2014 (Trematoda: Diplostomidae Poirier, 1886): morphology, life cycle, and phylogenetic relationships”, in Journal of Helminthology, volume 97, →DOI, page 5:

     Сaudal duct splits up in front of furcae into two canals reaching middle of furcae, where it opens with pores.

   • 2024, Mariusz Kanturski, Yerim Lee, “Miyalachnus—A New Lachninae Aphid Genus from Japan (Insecta, Hemiptera, Aphididae)”, in Insects, volume 15, number 3, →DOI, page 210:

     It has a mesosternum with well-developed, sessile furca. The arms of the mesosternal furca have a broad median and strictured and hemispherical apical part.

   • 2025 January 12, David Grimaldi, “Which Insects Move By Jumping?”, in Entomology Club‎^[1], archived from the original on 6 June 2025:

     Insects like grasshoppers use a specialized structure called the furca to facilitate jumping. The furca operates as a spring, compressing until a critical point is reached, where potential energy converts to kinetic energy, enabling a powerful jump.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

furca m (genitive singular furca, nominative plural furcaí)

1. wrinkle, pucker, fold

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “furca”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “furca”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm

Of uncertain origin.

In its primary sense of "fork", furca appears to be derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰerk(ʷ)-, *ǵʰerg(ʷ)- (“fork”), although the development of the -c- is difficult to explain. In the other senses, this derivation is unlikely. For those, perhaps it is connected to Proto-Germanic *furkaz, *firkalaz (“stake, stick, pole, post”), from Proto-Indo-European *perg- (“pole, post”). If so, this would relate the word to Old English forclas pl (“bolt”), Old Saxon ferkal (“lock, bolt, bar”), Old Norse forkr (“pole, staff, stick”), Norwegian fork (“stick, bat”), Swedish fork (“pole”).

Compare also Lithuanian žer̃gti (“to spread the legs”), ži̇̀rklės (“scissors”), though the mismatch of the vowels between the Lithuanian and Latin forms is hard to explain.^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈfʊr.ka]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfur.ka]

furca f (genitive furcae); first declension

1. A two-pronged fork, pitchfork.
2. A fork-shaped prop, pole or stake.
3. An instrument of punishment, a frame in the form of a fork, which was placed on a culprit's neck, while his hands were fastened to the two ends; yoke.

First-declension noun.

• Aromanian: furcã
• Catalan: forca
• Dalmatian: fuarca
• Friulian: forcje
• Italian: forca
• Old French: furche, forche
  • French: fourche
    • fourché
      • → English: fourche, fourchee
  • Walloon: fotche
  • Old Northern French: forque
    • Norman: frouque
• Old Leonese:
  • Asturian: forca
• Neapolitan: forca
• Occitan: forca
• Old Galician-Portuguese:
  • Galician: forca, furco
  • Portuguese: forca, furca
• Romanian: furcă
• Old Spanish: forca
  • Spanish: horca
    • → Cebuano: horka
• Romansch: furtga, fuortga, fuorcha
• Sardinian: frúca, furca
• Sicilian: furca
• Venetan: forca
• → Albanian: furkë
• → Proto-Brythonic: *forx
  • Breton: forc'h
  • Cornish: forgh
  • Welsh: fforch
• → Proto-West Germanic: *furkō (see there for further descendants)
• → Old Irish: forc
  • Irish: forc
  • Scottish Gaelic: forc, forca

• fuscina

• “furca”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “furca”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "furca", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• furca in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “furca”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “furca”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Inherited from Latin furca.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfuɾ.ka/, [ˈfuɾ.ka], [ˈfuk-]
• Rhymes: -urca
• Hyphenation: fùr‧ca

furca f (plural furchi)

1. (tool, agriculture) fork (instrument used in agriculture and gardening)
2. (tool) fork pitchfork

   Synonyms: furcuni, tridenti