furcula

Borrowed from Latin furcula.

furcula (plural furculae or furculæ)

1. (anatomy) A forked process or structure, generally two-pronged.
2. (ornithology) The forked bone formed by the fusion of the clavicles in birds, the wishbone or merrythought.
3. (entomology) The (two-pronged) forked, somewhat tail-like organ held bent forward and secured by a catch beneath most species of Collembola (springtails), with which they jump by releasing the catch abruptly when alarmed.
   • 2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherlands, Penguin, published 2023, page 215:

     In essence, a furcula is a long, rigid stick, held underneath the body at high tension. When the springtail releases that pressure, the stick pushes down into the ground, or even the water's surface, like an upside-down medieval catapult, firing the springtail into the air in a semi-controlled manner.

furca +‎ -ula.

furcula f (genitive furculae); first declension

1. small two-pronged fork
2. (in the plural) a narrow pass, defile

First-declension noun.

• “furcula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “furcula”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• furcula in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• furcula in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.