Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Furca

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

FURCA (δίκρανον). A two-pronged fork, such as a stable-fork, hay-fork, pitch-fork. (Virg. Georg. i. 264. Hor. Ep. i. 10. 24.) The annexed example (Furca/1.1) represents the iron head of a hay-fork, supposed to be Roman, but certainly of great antiquity, which was dug out of a bog forming the bank of the old river at the junction of the Nen at Horsey, near Peterborough.

2. A fork with a long handle to it, employed in taverns, kitchens, and larders, for the purpose of taking down provisions from the carnarium (Pet. Sat. 95. 8.), which was fixed to the ceiling, by sticking one of the branches into the object, or putting it under the loop by which it was hung upon its hook (see the illustration s. CARNARIUM); resembling, no doubt, the instrument which our butchers use for taking down a joint of meat, and other tradesmen whose articles are hung out of reach. From the expression of Petronius, furca de carnario rapta, it would appear that an instrument of this kind was usually suspended from the carnarium, ready for use.

3. Anything made in the shape of a fork, to be used for a prop or stay; as a prop for vines (Virg. Georg. ii. 259.); for fishing-nets (Plin. H. N. ix. 9.); for supporting planks to stand on. Liv. i. 35.

4. (στῆριγξ, στήριγμα). The pole of a cart or of a carriage; or rather that part of it which fastens into the axle, when it was made with two branches, like a fork, as it appears in the annexed example (Furca/4.1), from a Pompeian painting. (Plutarch. Coriol. 24. Lysias ap. Poll. x. 157.) It likewise appears from the above passages that the same name was also given to the trestle upon which the pole of a two-wheeled carriage was sometimes supported when the horses were taken out, like what we use to rest the shafts of our gigs upon.

5. An instrument made with two wooden handles or prongs, like a fork, employed for carrying burdens on the neck, in the manner shown by the annexed woodcut (Furca/5.1), from the Column of Trajan (Plaut. Cas. ii. 6. 37.); and which was frequently adopted as an instrument of punishment for freemen and slaves, when the arms of the culprit were tied down to the bars of the fork, while he was flogged through the streets. Plaut. Pers. v. 2. 73. Liv. i. 26. Suet. Nero, 49.

6. A contrivance for the infliction of capital punishment, on which slaves and robbers were hung; a gallows or gibbet. Callist. Dig. 48. 19. 28. Paul. Dig. 33. Ulp. ib. 13. 6.

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  Furca/1.1
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  Furca/4.1
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  Furca/5.1