Well, since you belabored it ...
Only if you're speaking British English ... the American
Heritage Dictionary is the OED for American English.
Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language, Third Edition.
bi·fur·cate
bi·fur·cate (b?f?r-kat´, bi-fû²¿© verb bi·fur·cat·ed,
bi·fur·cat·ing, bi·fur·cates
verb, transitive To divide into two parts or branches.
verb, intransitive To separate into two parts or branches;
fork.
adjective
(-kat´, -kit)Forked or divided into two parts or branches, as
the Y-shaped styles of certain flowers.
[Medieval Latin bifurcare, bifurcat-, to divide, from Latin
bifurcus, two-pronged : bi-, two. See bi-1 + furca,
fork.]
- bi?fur·cate´ly adverb
- bi´fur·ca?tion noun
Personally, I prefer Microsoft's Encarta World English
Dictionary
(edited by the usual suspects with the usual degrees that
every dictionary claims for validity).
bifurcate
bi·fur·cate intransitive and transitive verb [b? f?r k๴, bi
fú² « yt]
(past bi·fur·cat·ed, past participle bi·fur·cat·ed, present
participle bi·fur·cat·ing, 3rd person present singular
bi·fur·cates) divide in two: to split or branch off into two
parts, or split something into two parts
adjective [b? fur k๴, bi fú² « yt, b? furk?t, bi fú²«¿´] dividing in
two: separating or branching off into two parts
[Early 17th century. From, ultimately, Latin bifurcare,
literally "to fork twice," from furca "fork" (see fork
).]
-bi·fur·ca·tion [b?f?r kṳh'n], noun.
-- Anthony Dauer Alexandria, Virginia
All we're asking is that you give war a chance.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/1M_DC_March/
-----Original Message----- From: George Upper Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2001 9:30 AM
Not to belabor this off-topic point (okay, maybe to belabor it), I double-checked in the online OED before making that post. The OED trumps Webster's anyday, although obviously I was wrong about the word not appearing in any dictionary.
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