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.

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”), žìrklės (“scissors”), though the mismatch of the vowels between the Lithuanian and Latin forms is hard to explain.[1]

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfur.ka/, [ˈfʊrkä]
• (modern Italianate 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
• Catalan: forca
• Dalmatian: fuarca
• Friulian: forcje
• Italian: forca
• Old French: furche, forche
  • French: fourche
    • fourché
      • → English: fourche(e)
  • 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
• 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