furca

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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
• Entries containing “furca” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.

First recorded in Late Latin; uncertain origin. In its primary sense of "fork", Latin 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 other senses this derivation is unlikely. For these, 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”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfur.ka/, [ˈfʊrkä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfur.ka/, [ˈfurkä]

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
• Dalmatian: fuarca
• Friulian: forcje
• Italian: forca
• Old French: furche, forche
  • French: fourche
    • → English: fourche
  • Walloon: fotche
  • Old Northern French: forque
    • Norman: frouque
• Old Leonese:
  • Asturian: forca
• Old Occitan:
  • Catalan: 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
• Venetian: forca
• → Albanian: furkë
• → Proto-Brythonic: *forx
  • 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