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Original · left

Fork (utensil)

A pronged table utensil used for skewering and eating solid food.

First in use: ancient / pre-modern
Duplicate · right

Fork (software)

Creating a divergent copy of an existing codebase to pursue independent development, or an operating system process duplicating itself.

First in use: the 1980s

Fork / Fork (utensil) / Fork (software)

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Colour keyGrey · original meaningGreen · duplicate meaningAmber · contested (40–60%)How colours work

Cutlery vs. splitting a codebase.

Which meaning of Fork is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Fork (utensil) came first (ancient / pre-modern). Fork (software) arrived in the 1980s. The data below shows which one owns the word now.

Wikipedia pageviews since 2015

Fork (utensil)Fork (software)
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.

Duplicate's share of attention

Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does

Share-of-attention line loads here.

The case for each meaning

Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes

Original · ancient / pre-modern

Fork (utensil)

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Duplicate · the 1980s

Fork (software)

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More duplicated terms

Programming & software