pitchfork

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pychforke,^[2] probably an alteration of the earlier pickfork, recorded from 1349,^[3][4][5] which is formed from Middle English pik + forke, from pick or pike and fork.^[6][2][7] The change came under the influence of pitch, Middle English pichen (“to throw, thrust”), because the tool is used for pitching sheaves or hay.^[6][2][7][5] Etymonline gives a Middle English pic-forken from about 1200,^[7] and the OED compares the earlier pikefork.^[3] Johnson (1755) explained it simply as pitch plus fork.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long-handled fork with two sharp prongs for lifting and pitching hay, straw or sheaves: 1364, in account rolls of Stebbing quoted in the Middle English Dictionary.^[3] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-14th century, while Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the 13th century and Dictionary.com 1425–75.^[7][2][9]

Semantic evolution

The tool's name has kept its sense;^[3] Johnson (1755) described it as a fork for throwing corn onto a wagon.^[8][3] The American phrase to rain pitchforks, to rain very hard, is recorded from 1815.^[3][4] The verb came in the 1830s, first figuratively, of thrusting a person suddenly or unsuitably into an office or position (1832), and then literally, to lift or throw with a pitchfork (1837).^[3] Etymonline dates the literal verb to 1837,^[7] and the OED adds a sense "to stab with a pitchfork" from 1854.^[3] In the northern United States, pitchforks is a name for the two-pronged seeds of the beggar ticks and for the plant itself.^[10][2]

Timeline

• 1364 – a long-handled fork for lifting and pitching hay.^[3]
• 1815 – to rain pitchforks, to rain very hard.^[3]
• 1832 – verb, to thrust a person suddenly or unsuitably into a position.^[3]
• 1837 – verb, to lift or throw with a pitchfork.^[3][7]
• 1854 – verb, to stab with a pitchfork.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long-handled fork with two or three long, slightly curved prongs, used for lifting and tossing hay or straw.^[2][6][3]
2. pitchforks: the bur marigold or a related plant, or its pronged fruit.^[2][10]

Verb

1. To lift or toss with a pitchfork, or as if with one: The farmhand pitchforked the straw onto the cart.^[2][6][3]
2. To thrust someone suddenly and without preparation into a position or situation: He was pitchforked into the leadership after the minister resigned.^[2][3]

Related words

• pickfork
• pitch
• fork
• pike

Usage notes

A separate pitchfork, a tuning fork for setting the pitch of a tune, is recorded from 1881; it is formed from pitch in the musical sense and fork, after pitch pipe.^[11][4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
11. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press