fork

A fork is a hand-held utensil consisting of a handle and several elongated tines, typically used to spear and lift food. The two- and four-tine configurations are most common in Western table settings, and variations exist for specific tasks and cuisines. The word fork derives from Old English forca, which ultimately traces to Latin furca, meaning a pitchfork.

A fork can also denote a branching point or split in other domains. In geography and transportation, a fork describes a place where a road or river divides into two paths. In biology, the replication fork is the Y-shaped structure where the two strands of DNA separate to allow copying. In philosophical or organizational diagrams, a fork can mark a divergence in a project or lineage.

In computing, a fork refers to creating a separate copy of a software project's source code, allowing independent development. A fork may later be rejoined with the original project if the changes are adopted there, depending on licensing and governance. Forks are a central pattern in open-source software and collaborative platforms; platforms like GitHub distinguish forks from branches, although both imply divergence.

In blockchain technology, fork terminology distinguishes hard forks and soft forks. A hard fork yields an incompatible rule change, requiring participants to upgrade. A soft fork is backward-compatible. Notable hard forks include Bitcoin Cash, which split from Bitcoin in 2017, and Ethereum Classic, which continued after Ethereum's 2016 DAO incident.