GRE words

Part of Speech: noun

Pronunciation: ['bro-mId]

Definition: (1) A compound with bromine plus another element; (2) a commonplace remark or notion, a platitude, cliché; (3) a tiresome person, a bore.
Usage: Although we no long resort to bromides (1), bromides (3) still have the same dulling, sleep-inducing effect, "Farnsworth is such an old bromide, I fall asleep just looking at him." The most common use of today's word, however, is in the second sense: "If Kratzer uses that bromide, 'no pain, no gain,'（一分耕耘，一分收获） one more time, I'm going to give him a significant gain on the nose."

Suggested Usage: Bromides were such common sedatives in the 19th and early 20th centuries that a syndrome, bromism, was introduced to describe the effects of overdosing on them. Bromism resulted in depression, loss of memory, and slow mental processing. The adjective is "bromidic," as a bromidic phrase (= a cliché).

Etymology: Today's word is a stinky one, based on Greek brômos "a stink" + the scientific suffix –ide, a suffix widely used in chemistry to denote a compound based on the element referred to by the root. So "bromide" refers to a compound based on bromine, a dark red poisonous liquid with a strong, repulsive smell (whence its name). A very commonplace bromide in the 19th and early 20th century was potassium bromide, widely taken as a mild sedative before going to bed to induce sleep. From this usage, it is but a short skip to the sense of a commonplace remark that makes you yawn and from there to a person who puts you to sleep. (Today's word is brought to you by Dr. Richard R. Everson, Phyllis Stabler, and Eric Thornton of Exton, Pennsylvania, who have justifiably lobbied for its inclusion in our series for some months, now.)


bromide \BROH-myd\, noun:1. A compound of bromine and another element or a positive organic radical.2. A dose of potassium bromide taken as a sedative.3. A dull person with conventional thoughts.4. A commonplace or conventional saying.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. The words are in fact already a bromide when the pompous Malvolio finds and reads them.-- Marjorie Garber, Symptoms of Culture

He cannot resist the occasional bromide: "Ninety percent of diplomacy is a question of who blinks first."-- Gary J. Bass, "The Negotiator", New York Times, July 11, 1999

The next president could live up to that old political bromide "Let's run the government like a business" by staffing his cabinet with some leading figures from the new world of business.-- Daniel H. Pink, "Fast.Gov", Fast Company, October-2000

Part of Speech: verb

Pronunciation: ['bræn-dish]

Definition: To wave or otherwise display ostentatiously, flashily; to wield or flourish defiantly.

Usage: Today's word is about body language and implies someone is carrying an object with emphasis, so that it cannot be ignored, "Delores stumbled into the room brandishing a brandy glass that obviously had been filled several times." Generally, you can brandish only what is held in the hand, "Cord entered the room brandishing a pen as though he were going to sign the contract but we ended up just making more revisions."

Suggested Usage: Today's word does not come from "brand," though it is related in a round-about way to the original meaning of that word (as in branding livestock). It comes from a French word meaning "sword," hence refers to movements like those associated with wielding a sword. One who brandishes is a brandisher.

Etymology: Today's word originates in Old French brandir, brandiss-, from brand "sword." The French word "brand," however, was borrowed from a Germanic language, possibly Dutch branden "to burn, distill" (or temper steel) which gave us "brandy." The root clearly goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gwher-/gwhor- "heat, burn" which became thermos "warm, hot" in Greek, found in English "thermometer," "hypothermy" and "Lobster Thermidor. The initial [gwh] of this stem became [f] in Latin, hence the Latin word fornax "oven" which underlies our word "furnace." Finally, in the Germanic languages the initial consonant became [b], as in "burn" (German "brennen") and "brand."

Part of Speech: noun

Pronunciation: ['boi-kaht]

Definition: A concerted refusal to do business with a person or organization, usually to express disapproval of conditions or policies.

Usage: The literal use of this word, as in, "So long as the Almighty Dollar（万能的金元） speaketh, the boycott will remain an effective way of getting a company's attention," is always available. But in the spirit of "think global, nag local," one could say, "Jacob is boycotting the company of his grandchildren until they stop listening to hip-hop" (he won't be seeing them for awhile).

Suggested Usage: The noun and verb of today's word are the same: "boycott." A person who refuses to do business because of principles is a boycotter.
Etymology: Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott, a land agent in County Mayo, Ireland in the 1880s, is the eponym of today's word. Boycott worked for an absentee English landlord and was ruthless in his treatment of tenants. He became the target of Charles Parnell, an Irish activist set on reforming the laws of land ownership. Parnell incited Boycott's native employees to refuse to cooperate, next stores refused to serve his family, then the post refused to deliver mail, until finally the entire community shunned the Boycott family in the manner now manifest in today's word. Today's word, by the way, appears in virtually every European and in many other languages around the world.


boycott \BOY-kaht\ verb: to engage in a concerted refusal to have dealings with (as a person, store, or organization) usually to express disapproval or to force acceptance of certain conditions

Example sentence: The group boycotted the clothing company to protest its practice of employing sweatshop labor.

Did you know? In the 1870s, Irish farmers faced an agricultural crisis that threatened to result in a repeat of the terrible famine and mass evictions of the 1840s. Anticipating financial ruin, they formed a Land League to campaign against the rent increases and evictions landlords were imposing as a result of the crisis. Retired British army captain Charles Boycott had the misfortune to be acting as an agent for an absentee landlord at the time, and when he tried to evict tenant farmers for refusing to pay their rent, he was ostracized by the League and community. His laborers and servants quit, and his crops began to rot. Boycott's fate was soon well known, and his name became a byword for that particular protest strategy.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Part of Speech: verb

Pronunciation: ['bahg-gêl]

Definition: (1) To startle or be startled, to shy away from fearfully; (2) to bungle, botch, or fumble; (3) to overwhelm with amazement.

Usage: The intransitive use is still available, "The horse boggled at a barbed wire fence and threw its rider to the ground." The sense of botching retains its usefulness, too, "He boggled (sense 2) through the match, then clinched his position in infamy with a shot into his own goal, which boggled (sense 3) everyone in the stadium." So, don't let this verb boggle your imagination—deploy it generously in the glory of all its meanings.

Suggested Usage: Today's word has almost penned itself up in one word, "mind-boggling（令人难以置信的）." Historically, however, this verb has mostly been used intransitively with the preposition "at" or "about," as in, "He would never boggle at a bungee jump or two." An interesting noun from the second meaning of today's word is boggledy-botch "a complete mess, foul up," as in "You've made a complete boggledy-botch of the party with your lampshades and karaoke!"

Etymology: Of the various names "bogle," "boggard," "bogy" attached to English-speaking goblins, "bogle" has been around the longest, since around 1500. Although these words seem obviously related, their relationship is unclear. They may derive from bogge or bog "hobgoblin, ghost" which, in turn, are probably variants of "bugge" or "bug," seen in current "bugaboo" and "bugbear." "Bug" in this sense may be borrowed from Welsh bwg (= bug) "ghost, hobgoblin." The forms "bogle" or "boggle" could be ancient diminutives of these words or they, too, might come directly from Welsh bwgwl (= bugul) "terror, terrifying.” Who knows?

Part of Speech: noun

Pronunciation: ['bur or 'bu-wêr]

Definition: A lout, a grossly rude and tactless person.

Usage: Remember, boors are seldom bores, "How that boor got his FOOT in the punch bowl I'll never know; he usually keeps it tucked safely in his mouth." Rather, boors tend to behave rather vulgarly: "The giggling boys watched Gordon boorishly pick his nose and made bets on how he would dispose of the by-product."

Suggested Usage: Do not confuse today's word with "bore" [bor] (one of the few deverbal person nouns without the suffix –er: a writ-er writes and a read-er reads, but cooks, guides, and bores cook, write and bore). Boors are boorish and behave boorishly because of their boorishness. Most boors now live far from South Africa, where the boers are now gentleman farmers all, producing excellent wines, among other produce.

Etymology: From Afrikaans boer "farmer" related to Dutch boer and German Bauer "peasant farmer" and to Old English buan "dwell, live" from which contemporary "bower" is derived. To English colonialists in South Africa, the boers were rude and uncivilized, so they adopted the word in that sense, but misspelling in their own "civilized" way. The original root of today's word underlies the word for "be" in all Indo-European languages, and hence has too enormous a lexical progeny to be covered here. We do thank Christo Lombaard, himself of South Africa, for pointing out most unboorishly how English speakers shot themselves in the foot misborrowing today's word.

Part of Speech: adjective

Pronunciation: ['bleyt-ênt]

Definition: Annoyingly loud, coarse, or out of harmony with others; shockingly expressive of matters that should not be revealed.

Usage: Remember, "blatant" basically refers to something offensively loud or outspoken, "Crystal Ball has been a blatant critic of all efforts to regulate palm-reading and fortune-telling in our fair city." A musical instrument may be too blatant if it doesn't blend in with the orchestra. The other meaning of today's word describes the expression of matters best left unsaid, "I was appalled at Mortimer's blatant discussion of our plan to blow up Bin Laden's TV studio" or "Marge blatantly told Ullie that she didn't love him any more at Noreen's cocktail party."

Suggested Usage: Be careful to remember that today's word does not mean "serious," so it cannot be properly used in phrases like "a blatant breach of formality" or "a blatant lie." It also does not exactly mean "flagrant." This word means "glaring, stark, outrageously obvious," and tends to suggest visual rather than auditory offense. The adverb of today's word is "blatantly" and the noun, "blatancy."

Etymology: Today's word is a participle of Latin blatire "to babble, blabber, gossip," akin to Swedish pladder "chatter, gossip" and probably German plappern "babble, rattle on." Russian boltat' "chatter, blabber" and Serbian blebetati "blab, jabber" are also related.

Part of Speech: adjective

Pronunciation: ['bo-gês]

Definition: Fake, false, not genuine.

Usage: Today's word is a common colloquial replacement for "fake" or "false": "Frederique, the Count of Mountebank, as he called himself, made a costly mistake when he set up a company that was as bogus as his name." Just take a look at television and you will see a plethora of bogus investment schemes, weight-loss and body-building programs. Caveat emptor!

Suggested Usage: "Bogus" today is used almost exclusively as an adjective, even though it started out as a noun (see Etymology). At one time con artists passed bogus to unwary victims; now, they pass bogus coins and bills.

Etymology: There are many explanations of the origin of today's word, most of them are, well, bogus. That it is a shortening of tantrabogus "an unusual object," a word used at one time in Vermont seems unlikely, since only one person has reported hearing the word. The most likely explanation is that it is a fanciful Latinization of "bogy" or "bogey" as in "bogy-man" or "booger-man," which originally referred to evil goblins or ghosts. What is sure is that by 1827 it referred to machines that produced counterfeit money, especially coins. Money produced by such machines was itself called "bogus" and the current meaning is but a very small metaphorical hop from the adjectival use. (There is nothing bogus about our gratitude to Tim J. Dobbins, III for suggesting today's word. It is genuine.)

Part of Speech: adjective

Pronunciation: [bLIdh]

Definition: Joyous, spiritedly if not giddily happy; happy to the point of ignoring reality.

Usage: I'm for returning to the old Scottish greeting, "I'm blithe to meet you" though I will probably attract few to the cause. In the US we tend to overuse the adverb without its central meaning, as in "He blithely understated her qualifications," meaning he did so simply without thought rather than as a result of being carried away with happiness. Today's word retains its sense of joy, as Shelley used it to address his skylark: "Hail thee, blithe spirit! Bird thou never wert- That from heaven or near it Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art." (Then the poem gets even better.)

Suggested Usage: The comparative is "blither," pronounced [bLIdh-êr] in contrast to the verb "blither" [blidhêr]. The superlative is "blithest" and "blithely" is the adverb. "Blithesome" is an odd variant with a superfluous adjective suffix tacked onto an adjective that simply retains the original meaning, "cheerful." When the Scots were blithe to meet a new born child, blithemeat "happy food" was served, a term from the time when "meat" meant simply "food," as it does in "mincemeat."

blithesome \BLYTHE-sum\ adjective

Meaning: gay, merry

Example Sentence
In The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-Day, Mark Twain's Laura, who had been struck by love, wondered why she had never before noticed "how blithesome the world was."

Did you know?
"Blithesome" comes from "blithe," a word that has been a part of English since before the 12th century. "Blithe" can mean "casual" and "heedless" as well as "joyful" and "lighthearted," but "blithesome" obviously makes use of only the "joyful, lighthearted" sense. "Blithesome" didn't show up in print in English until 1724, and is now relatively uncommon, but you'll find it in the works of such authors as Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

bravura \bruh-VYUR-uh; brah-; -VUR-\

noun:1. A florid, brilliant style of music that emphasizes the technical force and skill of a performer; virtuoso music. 2. A showy or brilliant display.

But it was not just the bravura of his self-expression that gave him such a hold on his contemporaries.-- Peter Ackroyd, "Oscar Wilde: Comedy as Tragedy,", New York Times, November 1, 1987

The straightforward narrative account is set down with old-fashioned punctilio in prose of classic distinction, singularly free of bravura, and marked by the hard clarity of outline that is one of Waugh's several manners.-- Charles A. Brady, "Figure of Grace", New York Times, January 24, 1960

With his customary display of dramatic bravura, Sir Alan Ayckbourn is giving us twin comedies about a village fete and staging them simultaneously in each of the National's big, adjacent auditoriums.-- Benedict Nightingale, "Witches of Updike Flying to London", New York Times, March 12, 2000

bravado \bruh-VAH-doh\, noun;

plural bravados or bravadoes \bruh-VAH-dohz\:

A real or pretended show of courage or boldness.

While the popular mood in Belgrade remains defiant, unease beneath the bravado is growing.-- "No end in sight", The Economist, April 15, 1999

His guerrilla operations, near Kabul, were known for their bravado and a level of organization unusual among the rather haphazard mujahedeen.-- Lisa Schiffren, "Remembering Abdul Haq: The Taliban executes an Afghan patriot", The Weekly Standard, November 12, 2001

The company's culture of swashbuckling bravado encouraged risk taking without accountability.-- Ram Charan and Jerry Useem, "Why Companies Fail", Fortune, May 27, 2002

His mom was a nurse, incredulous at his bravado. "Why would anybody want to go to war?" she asked.-- Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

The students often compared public schools to prisons, with fear in their voices mixing with bravado.-- Alissa Quart, "Classroom Consciousness", The Nation, June 10, 2002

braggadocio \brag-uh-DOH-see-oh; -shee-oh; -shoh\

noun:1. A braggart.2. Empty boasting.3. A swaggering, cocky manner.

. . .all charm and "aw shucks" humility one moment, full of braggadocio the next.-- David S. Broder, "An Opportunity Missed", Washington Post, January 26, 1995

David was charming, offsetting his usual braggadocio with vulnerability.-- Tom King, The Operator

She came storming out of east Texas like a whirlwind, a raw-boned tomboy with more than enough braggadocio to go with her matchless athleticism, commanding Olympian headlines in 1932 and holding the spotlight as the world's greatest female golfer for 25 years.-- Shav Glick, "Babe in the Woods", Los Angeles Times, December 29, 1999

bootless \BOOT-lis\, adjective:

Unavailing; useless; without advantage or benefit.

I have seen a swan
With bootless labour swim against the tide.-- Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III

A noble intention, a decent attempt to bust bigger heads than their own with their best weapons, but bootless and, ultimately, senseless, too.-- Gordon Monson, "Ute Defense Headlines Bland Game", Salt Lake Tribune, September 1, 2002

A crew of divers was scheduled to start cleaning the seaweed off the net in preparation for winter, although now it seemed like a bootless task, given that Keiko might never come back.-- Susan Orlean, "Where's Willy?", The New Yorker, September 16, 2002

Late in the nineteenth century there had been a bootless competition between Munich and Berlin as to which was more modern, more civilized.-- Peter Gay, My German Question

Part of Speech: noun

Pronunciation: ['bi-gêt]

Definition: (1) A hypocrite, especially a superstitious religious hypocrite; (2) an extremely prejudiced fanatic obstinately wedded to a particular opinion or attitude and passionately intolerant of those who disagree.

Usage: We generally associate bigotry with socially incorrect behavior: "His divorces do not surprise me: Rollo is such a sexist bigot, I'm astonished that he found five women willing to marry him." Today's word does, however, fit correct types of prejudicial social behavior: "Charles is a bangers-and-mash bigot who won't let anything else be served for breakfast—though he might accept a toad in the hole on special occasion." ("Bangers" are what Australians call "snags" and Americans call "sausages." A "toad in the hole" is a banger baked in dough.)

Suggested Usage: A bigot is bigoted (the adjective) and the nature of a bigot is his or her bigotry (the abstract noun).

Etymology: The origin of today's word is obscured by thick veils of history. We know it first emerged in the romantic biography of Girart de Roussillon written in the 12th century. It has no apparent connection with Spanish bigote "moustache." There is a story that the first Duke of Normandy, Rollo (Hrolf) the Walker (so called because he was too large for a horse), was ceded Normandy by Charles III, The Simple, on the condition that Rollo's fellow Vikings be kept out. To seal the deal, Rollo supposedly kissed the boot of Charles, muttering, "Ne se, bi got," which was taken to mean "No, by God!" in a combination of French and broken English. This curious story is too silly to even be called apocryphal. More interesting is the claim that the term Visigoth "West Goth" survived in the South of France and emerged as "bigot." It is true that the Northern Franks did not like the Visigoths of Toulouse and used several racial slurs in referring to them. However, the phonetic changes required for this derivation are none of those we know took place in other words, disallowing any provable connection. (We are also not sure how Lyn Laboriel keeps coming up with such interesting words to suggest for our series but we are happy that she does.)

bombast \BOM-bast\, noun:

Pompous or pretentious speech or writing.

A more serious difficulty, though, is that "love" has inspired a vast deal of high-toned rhetoric, and Ms. Ackerman seems determined to boost the bombast that already engulfs this troublesome word.-- "This Crazy Thing Called Love", New York Times, June 26, 1994

It was partly this gift for nuance that caused Kempton to notice, while reviewing the work of Whittaker Chambers, something undeniably authentic beneath the bombast and self-pity.-- "Age of Ideology: Murray Kempton on the 30's", New York Times, January 31, 1999

He especially loved pro wrestling shows, where he learned the importance of bombast, and how to immobilize a larger opponent.-- John Brady, Bad Boy: The Life and Politics of Lee Atwater

blandish

Part of Speech: verb

Pronunciation: ['blæn-dish]

Definition: To flatter, to cajole or seduce with kind and ostensibly affectionate
words.

Usage: Blandishment is an every day occurrence: "He blandished me with every kind word in his vocabulary but I simply refused to surrender my Virginia tea to him." Not all blandishments fail, of course: "Sarah's subtle blandishments finally convinced Hardy to wear a shirt when her parents visit."

Suggested Usage: The activity of blandishing is "blandishment" and the person doing the blandishing is a "blandisher." Flattery may be sincere, as may be cajolery but blandishment is generally taken as insincere, beguiling flattery. "Wheedle" implies persistent flattery while cajolery implies flattery against the staunch resistance of the person being flattered.


blandishment \BLAN-dish-muhnt\, noun:

Speech or action that flatters and tends to coax, entice, or persuade; allurement -- often used in the plural.

But she had not risen at all to the law fellow's blandishments, his attempts to interest her in his ideas and persuade her to set forth her own.-- John Bayley, Elegy for Iris

And that my English-speaking victims find my blandishments so pretty, accented as they are, and yield to my soft lustrous Italian pronunciations, is a constant source of bliss for me.-- Anne Rice, Vittorio, the Vampire

Perfect, gentle reader: I will not begin this book with a tribute to your discernment, because a person of your obvious accomplishments would certainly be immune to such blandishments.-- Richard Stengel, You're Too Kind: A Brief History of Flattery

bilk \bilk\

verb, noun: 1. to defraud; cheat 2. to frustrate 3. to escape from; elude

noun: 1. a trick; fraud; deceit. 2. a cheat, swindler

Stuart Levine is a guy who is accused of trying to bilk numerous state agencies - and people seeking help from government agencies - out of millions of dollars.-- Steve Brown

bilious \BIL-yuhs\, adjective:

1. Of or pertaining to bile.

2. Marked by an excess secretion of bile.

3. Pertaining to, characterized by, or affected by gastric distress caused by a disorder of the liver.

4. Appearing as if affected by such a disorder.

5. Resembling bile, especially in color.

6. Of a peevish disposition; ill-tempered.

Most arresting of all, his normally gray elephant hide has changed to a bilious shade of green.-- Ellen Handler Spitz, Inside Picture Books

Warm and diplomatic in manner, devoted to his wife and sons, Rich at 52 fits the stereotype of the bilious, bitter critic in only one particular: He didn't have a happy childhood.-- Judith Newmark, "Theater Expert Fears 'The Bottom Will Drop
Out' For Broadway", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 25, 2001

The field here on my right belongs to Knemon,
a human lacking in humanity,
bilious toward everyone, detesting crowds.-- Menander, The Grouch (translated by Sheila D'Atri)

I know of friends and colleagues who have received death threats and bilious ventings from angry and sometimes deranged strangers.-- Peter Wood, "You've Got (Hate) Mail", National Review, July 30, 2001


Example Sentence
Molly’s bilious demeanor made her ill-suited for a job in customer service, and she was let go from the position after two weeks.

Did you know?
"Bilious" is one of several words whose origins trace to the old belief that four bodily humors (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood) control temperament. Just like "phlegmatic" (“of a slow and stolid phlegm-driven character”), “melancholy” (“experiencing dejection associated with black bile”), and the recent Word of the Day "sanguine" (“of a cheerful, blood-based disposition”), "bilious" suggests a personality associated with an excess of one of the humors — in this case, yellow bile. "Bilious," which first appeared in English in the mid-1500s, derives from the Middle French “bilieux,” which in turn traces to “bilis,” Latin for "bile." In the past, "bile" was also called "choler," which gives us "choleric,” a synonym of “bilious.”

bifurcate \BY-fur-kayt; by-FUR-kayt\

transitive verb: 1. To divide into two branches or parts.

intransitive verb: 1. To branch or separate into two parts.

adjective: 1. Divided into two branches or parts; forked.

There it was, a sliver of a million-dollar view: the red towers of the Golden Gate Bridge that bifurcated the waters, marking bay from ocean.-- Amy Tan, The Bonesetter's Daughter

They were strolling up the paved walk which bifurcated the rolling front lawn of her house.-- Erik Tarloff, The Man Who Wrote the Book

Increasingly, Canadian teachers are a bifurcated group -- either relative newcomers to the profession or experienced veterans.-- Heather-Jane Robertson, "The Devil's in the Demographics.", Phi Delta Kappan, January 1999

Peed Onk is bravura writing -- the narrative bifurcates, offering exterior realism and the interior torment of the Mother.-- Jon Saari, "Books", Antioch Review, Spring 1999

Riven continually confronts us with . . . visual echoes of its name, such as the giant dagger thrust into the landscape at one point, or the plate-tectonic fracturing of islands out of an implied unity, or even the bifurcate wing cases of the aptly named Riven beetles.-- Stuart Moulthrop, "Misadventure: Future Fiction and the New Networks", Style, Summer 1999


Part of Speech: verb

Pronunciation: ['bI-fêr-keyt]

Definition: To fork, to divide into two branches or prongs; to separate into two parts.

Usage: Today's word is golden in the garden: "Because the leaves of the iris don't bifurcate, they look like green spears rocketing from the ground." It also elevates the tone of directions you give to others: "Don't smash the chocolate bar into bits, Penelope, bifurcate it neatly and offer your brother a moiety!" Another delightful scene from the life of a happy Word-of-the-Day family, using two recent Words of the Day in one sentence!

Suggested Usage: The noun is "bifurcation" and the adjective, spelt the same as the verb but with displaced accent, ['bI-fêr-kêt], means "forked or divided into two parts."


Example Sentence
The proposed restructuring would bifurcate the company.

Did you know?
Yogi Berra, the baseball great who was noted for his head-scratching quotes, is purported to have said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Yogi’s advice might not offer much help when making tough decisions in life, but perhaps it will help you remember today’s word, “bifurcate.” A road that bifurcates splits in two like the one in Yogi’s adage. Other things can bifurcate as well, such as an organization that splits into two factions. “Bifurcate” derives from the Latin “bifurcus,” meaning “two-pronged,” a combination of the prefix “bi-” (“two”) and the noun “furca” (“fork”). “Furca,” as you can probably tell, gave us our word “fork.”