Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In Roman antiquity, an instrument of punishment varying between the types and uses of the yoke and the gallows, according to its size and shape.
- noun In zoölogical classifications, divergence in two lines from the point representing a given group; dichotomy, considered in the abstract.
- noun An inflected elastic anal organ ending in a fork, by which the animal is enabled to leap, as in
Podura .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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It is also to be noted that the word furca must have been at least partially equivalent to crux.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery 1840-1916 1913
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They left the _furca_ and the _patibulum_, the axe and the rods, to great offenders: for these minor and (if I may so term them) extra-moral offences _the bent thumb_ was considered as a sufficient sign of disapprobation, -- _vertere pollicem_; as _the pressed thumb, premere pollicem_, was a mark of approving.
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Ante-furca: an internal forked process from the prosternum, to which muscles are attached.
Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology John. B. Smith
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Collar: in general any structure between the head and thorax: specifically, in Hymenoptera, the neck; in Diptera, may mean the neck, the sclerites attached to the thorax, the thorax itself, or its processes (ante furca): in Coleoptera, is the narrowed thorax; in
Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology John. B. Smith
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No, no! Naturam expellas furca tamen usque recurret.
Selected English Letters Various 1913
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Some wretched slave-boy, a slight, delicate fellow, had been bound to the bars of a furca, and was being driven by two brutal executioners to the place of doom outside the gates.
A Friend of Caesar A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C. William Stearns Davis 1903
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Sulkily enough the executioners unbound the heavy furca.
A Friend of Caesar A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C. William Stearns Davis 1903
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And now Alfidius and his myrmidon bound their captive to a furca, a wooden yoke passing down the back of the neck and down each arm.
A Friend of Caesar A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C. William Stearns Davis 1903
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His hands were bound behind him, and over his neck was the heavy wooden collar or furca which was placed upon refractory slaves.
The Last of the Legions and Other Tales of Long Ago Arthur Conan Doyle 1894
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"In the ergastulum, your honour, with the furca on his neck."
The Last of the Legions and Other Tales of Long Ago Arthur Conan Doyle 1894
biocon commented on the word furca
In addition, furca is a forked process or forklike structure.
July 29, 2012