bifurcate

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 1, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>bifurcate</strong> &#149; \BYE-fer-kayt\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p>When something bifurcates, it divides into two branches or parts; to bifurcate something is to divide it into two branches or parts.</p> <p>// The stream <em>bifurcated</em> into two narrow winding channels.</p> <p>// When a highway <em>bifurcates</em> a forest, it also splits the habitats of animal populations that may have a difficult time making it across safely to the other side.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bifurcate">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"Over time, the English ... became more powerful, spreading from Virginia to Maryland to Carolina (not yet <em>bifurcated</em>) ..." — Scott W. Stern, <em>The New Republic</em>, 26 June 2023</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Yogi Berra, the baseball great who was noted for his head-scratching quotes, is purported to have said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Berra's advice might not offer much help when you're making tough decisions in life, but perhaps it will help you remember <em>bifurcate</em>. A road that bifurcates splits in two, like the one in Berra's <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adage">adage</a>. Other things can bifurcate (or be bifurcated) as well, such as an organization that splits, or is split, into two factions. <em>Bifurcate</em> comes from the Latin adjective <em>bifurcus</em>, meaning "two-pronged," a combination of the prefix <em>bi-</em> ("two") and the noun <em>furca</em> ("fork"). <em>Furca</em>, as you may have guessed, is also an ancestor of <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fork"><em>fork</em></a>, which refers to the handy utensil that can (in a pinch) help us—as Berra might say—to cut our piz