furca

See also: furcă and furcã

Irish

Etymology

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

Noun

furca m (genitive singular furca, nominative plural furcaí)

1. wrinkle, pucker, fold

Declension

Bare forms Case Singular Plural Nominative furca furcaí Vocative a fhurca a fhurcaí Genitive furca furcaí Dative furca furcaí

Forms with the definite article Case Singular Plural Nominative an furca na furcaí Genitive an fhurca na bhfurcaí Dative leis an bhfurca don fhurca leis na furcaí

Declension of furca

Fourth declension

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
furca	fhurca	bhfurca
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

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

Latin

Etymology

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]

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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.

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	furca	furcae
Genitive	furcae	furcārum
Dative	furcae	furcīs
Accusative	furcam	furcās
Ablative	furcā	furcīs
Vocative	furca	furcae

Derived terms

• bifurcus
• furcifer
• furcilla
• furcōsus
• furcula
• quadrifurcus
• trifurcus

 

Related terms

• furcillātus
• furcillō

 

Descendants

• 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
  • Welsh: fforch
• → Proto-West Germanic: *furkō (see there for further descendants)
• → Old Irish: forc
  • Irish: forc
  • Scottish Gaelic: forc, forca

See also

• fuscina

References

• “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

1. De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “furca”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 251-2