furcan.
1. Roman History (and allusively). A gallows.
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society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > hanging > [noun] > gallows
gallowsOE
gallows-treea1000
warytre?a1200
gibbet?c1225
gallow-forka1250
forkc1275
juisec1320
forchesc1380
crossa1382
treec1425
patible1428
justice1484
potencec1500
haltera1533
turning-tree1548
potentc1550
three treesa1566
chates1567
mare1568
furel1587
bough1590
gibe1590
derrickc1600
hangrella1605
cross-tree1638
Gregorian tree1641
wooden horse1642
timber-marec1650
triple tree1651
furca1653
nubbing1673
a horse that was foaled of an acorn1678
nub1699
Tyburn tree1728
raven-stone1738
picture frame1785
crap1789
lamp-iron1790
Moll Blood1818
stifler1818
scragging-post1819
government signposta1828
leafless tree1830
shuggie-shue1836
doom-tree1837
stob1860–62
1653 Bp. J. Taylor 25 Serm. Golden Grove xii. 162 They shall escape the furca and the wheel.
1779 Gentleman's Mag. 49 460 The American General deserved a furca rather than a mischianza.
2. Entomology.
a. An apodeme or process in the thorax of many insects.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > parts of insects > [noun] > thorax > process on or furca
furca1895
1895 Cambr. Nat. Hist. V. i. 103 Entothorax (apophysis or furca).
1910 C. G. Hewitt House-flies 9 The theca rests on a triradiate chitinous sclerite—the furca, which consists of a median, slightly convex rod.
1925 A. D. Imms Gen. Textbk. Entomol. 47 The endosternites (apophyses of some writers) are commonly represented by the furcæ; each furca is a median apodeme, unpaired at its base, with two free distal arms.
1925 A. D. Imms Gen. Textbk. Entomol. 598 The theca..articulates distally with a short rod or furca.
1969 R. F. Chapman Insects viii. 131 In higher insects the two apophyses arise together in the midline and only separate internally, forming a Y-shaped furca.
b. = furcula n. 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > subclass Apterygota or Ametabola > [noun] > order Collembola > member of > forked appendage on abdomen
furcula1906
furca1939
1939 H. Womersley Primitive Insects S. Austral. 81 In most species [of Collembola], the fourth ventral segment carries a pair of large, partially fused, appendages which form the characteristic spring or furca.
1969 R. F. Chapman Insects ix. 154 The jump is produced by the sudden release of the furca.
3. Zoology. A pair of divergent processes on the last abdominal segment of certain crustaceans.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Crustacea > [noun] > member of > parts of > divergent processes on last abdominal segment
furca1903
1903 J. S. Kingsley tr. Hertwig Man. Zool. 420 The terminal abdominal segment [of the Copepoda] is two~forked, forming the ‘furca’.
1932 L. A. Borradaile & F. A. Potts Invertebrata xii. 303 On the telson [of Crustacea] usually..is a pair of caudal rami forming the caudal furca.
1956 Nature 11 Feb. 289/2 In the arrangement of the setæ on uropods and furca the new species is similar to Th[ermobathynella] leleupi.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1898; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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