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Glite Dictionary
🦗 A forked organ 🌿 Forked shape 🦴 Relating to furcula
furcal

furcal

1 9.9
A forked part that small insects use to jump away
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : furcal
  • The furcal structure on the springtail allows it to jump rapidly when threatened.

Examples

  • Scientists study the furcal appendage of certain insects to understand their locomotion better.

  • Observing the furcal organ under a microscope revealed its unique forked design.

  • Many have deemed the off-season a complete disappointment, with no bigger exclamation point than that of the negotiations that turned into a big game of Deal or No Deal with Rafael Furcal.

    Blog text (14)

  • Except for some untimely injuries (Rafael Furcal) and the recent loss of the NLCS, it's hard to argue that the Cardinals' 2012 wasn't a success.

    Blog text (30)

  • Lance Berkman, Rafael Furcal, Adrian Beltre—all those guys didn't sign with the A's for one reason or another.

    Blog text (31)

Surface Forms

furcal singular
furcals plural

Morphology

furcal = furca (opaque) = furca + al

The noun is a technical use of the same rare furca + -al form, so the structure is clear to specialists but not to an average learner.

Etymology

The word furcal comes from Latin furca or furcula, both meaning 'fork', and it names a small forked organ in some insects that works like a spring. So the noun furcal refers to that forked appendage that helps the animal jump.