bifurcate

See also: bifúrcate

English edit

WOTD – 8 February 2016

Etymology edit

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin bifurcātus. Surface Analysis bi- +‎ furcate.

Pronunciation edit

(Verb):
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbaɪfəˌkeɪt/
- (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbaɪfɚˌkeɪt/
- Audio (Southern England) (file)
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(Adjective):
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /baɪˈfɛːkɪt/, /baɪˈfɛːkeɪt/
- (General American) IPA^(key): /baɪˈfɚkət/, /baɪˈfɚkeɪt/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)kɪt
Hyphenation: bi‧fur‧cate

Verb edit

bifurcate (third-person singular simple present bifurcates, present participle bifurcating, simple past and past participle bifurcated)

(intransitive) To divide or fork into two channels or branches.
- 1964 December, “Southern raises capacity of Borough Market Junction”, in Modern Railways, page 417:
  A considerable switch is to take place between Charing Cross and Cannon Street as termini for existing trains, in order to develop parallel working over the flat junction at Borough Market, where the two routes bifurcate (four tracks to Cannon Street and two to Charing Cross), as many as 20 times in the maximum hour, when the junction will handle 104 trains in all.
(transitive) To cause to bifurcate.