Fork
Fork turns up in 2 fields: mining, telecom & it. Here is what it means to the people in each one.
Fork in mining
The lowest part of a mine sump where water collects to be pumped out.
The very bottom section of a shaft or sump where groundwater and runoff collect before being pumped out of the mine. Keeping the water level at the fork is essential to prevent flooding the lower working levels. When a pump has drawn the water down as far as it can reach, the mine is said to be in fork.
"The new submersible pump finally got the shaft in fork, so we can send the timbermen down to inspect the damage."
Fork in telecom & it
A divergence in source code where a copy is developed independently from the original.
To take a copy of source code from an existing software project and start independent development on it, creating a distinct and separate piece of software. Developers fork a project when they want to experiment without affecting the main branch, or when a community splits over the technical direction of an open-source tool. The resulting new project is also called a fork.
"They refused to merge our patches, so we decided to fork the repository and maintain it ourselves."