Forking

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of creating multiple paths or options from a single point involves branching out in different directions
2. This refers to the act of dividing an original entity into several distinct branches or choices
3. The act of splitting a single source into multiple separate directions or divisions

Etymology: The verb "forking" is simply the present participle of "fork", so its story is the story of the noun. Its ancestor was Latin "furca", which meant a pitchfork or forked stake, but also a gallows, a beam or a yoke. The Latin word was taken into Old English as "force" or "forca", a forked instrument used to torture, and Middle English later reinforced it with a French form, "forche", that came from the same Latin source. The meaning of "fork" in the sense of a divided implement is considerably later. The word spread across the Germanic languages too, appearing as Dutch "vork", German "Forke" and Danish "fork", and English gradually displaced an older native word, "gafol", for a forked tool. The sense of anything dividing into two or more branches, such as a road or a river, developed from this, and it is attested from the 18th century.

Synonyms: branching, diverging

Antonyms: merging, converging