Bifurcate

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Dr. Goodword
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Bifurcate

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Jul 22, 2015 10:05 pm

• bifurcate •

Pronunciation: bai-fêr-kayt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: To fork, divide into two parts, to branch, to form a Y.

Notes: I have heard this word misused as a synonym of separate. It has exactly the sense above in the Meaning, to fork into two parts from one part. The noun is bifurcation, and the adjective is spelled the same way, but pronounced differently: bai-fêr-kêt.

In Play: When you come to a fork in the road, take it When Yogi Berra came to a fork in the road, he took it; so, whenever your roads bifurcate, do the same thing. Remember, this word does not mean simply "to separate", but "to fork": "Blanche Dwight panicked when the road she was on bifurcated: she didn't know which branch to take."

Word History: English picked up this word from the past participle, bifurcatus, of the Medieval Latin verb bifurcare "to bifurcate", based on Latin bifurcus "two-pronged", made up of bi- "two" + furca "fork". Where Latin furca came from is a mystery, but it is found in nearly all the Romance and Germanic languages: Spanish horca, Portuguese and Italian forca, German Forke, and Dutch vork. There is an Anglo-Norman word forcer, derived from forces, the feminine plural of forfex "clipping-shears". Since shears consist of two parts, furca may have strayed from this word. There remain too many phonological and semantic issues to say for sure. (We must bifurcate our narrative at this point to thank Eric Berntson for suggesting today's doubly Good Word.)
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LukeJavan8
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Re: Bifurcate

Postby LukeJavan8 » Thu Jul 23, 2015 12:35 pm

Curious to me: when did the 'fork' enter into the dining room.
Movies always show knives and spoons only. Seeing bridges
and other things like tree branches, one would think that
'sapiens' would have invented 'forks' much earlier.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----


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