Fork definition
Where the road forks.
An example of a fork is what people stick into a piece of meat to pick it up to eat it.
An example of a fork is a dead end street with a left and a right turn.
A fork in a road.
The right fork.
Forked over $80 for front-row seats; forked up the money owed.
The river forks here.
Tuning fork.
A road, a tree, or a stream forks.
- to pay out or hand over
Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
Origin of fork
- Middle English forke digging fork from Old English forca and from Old North French forque both from Latin furca
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- From Middle English forke (“digging fork”), from Old English force, forca (“forked instrument used to torture”), from Proto-Germanic *furkǭ, *furkô (“fork”), from Latin furca (“pitchfork, forked stake", also "gallows, beam, stake, support post, yoke”), of uncertain origin. The Middle English word was later reinforced by Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French forque (= Old French forche whence French fourche), also from the Latin. Cognate also with North Frisian forck (“fork”), Dutch vork (“fork”), Danish fork (“fork”), German Forke (“pitchfork”). Displaced native gafol, ġeafel, ġeafle (“fork”), from Old English.
From Wiktionary
- 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 (“bolt”) (plural), Old Saxon fercal (“lock, bolt, bar”), Old Norse forkr (“pole, staff, stick”), Norwegian fork (“stick, bat”), Swedish fork (“pole”).
From Wiktionary