In addition to the meaning of forking that Webster 1913 defines for bifurcation, the word also has several other meanings:
· In financial context: Division of a financial instrument into two pieces. The term sometimes refers to a division for analytical or evaluation purposes, but it more commonly suggests a more complex approach to financial instrument taxation.
· In dynamic systems context: The appearance of an additional pattern of behavior or sequence of states for a system.
"One can think of a person traveling down a road. The farther the traveler goes, the more side streets or alternative routes appear. In a sense the bifurcation introduces history. To know the state of a system at any time implies a knowledge of the paths taken or not taken." (Cybernetics Glossary: Umpleby after Prigogine, 1980, pp. 105-6)