Although the word
fork dates back to about the
eleventh century as the name of an
implement used to
pitch hay, the
table fork was not used in
England until 1611. It was then that a country squire named
Thomas Coryate returned from a trip to Italy, where forks had been used since at least the eleventh century, bringing back with him the
newfangled eating utensil and an enthusiasm for using it.
Coryate's countrymen, however, thought his zeal for eating with a fork was at best a foreign affectation and at worst an affront to God: he was mocked on the stage for his effete reluctance to touch his food with his hands, and he was castigated in churches for putting a devilish fork between himself and the food that his Lord so graciously gave him.
Perhaps, however, much of this uproar was merely sour grapes, since it was evident that Coryate, unlike everyone else in England, was now able to eat a meal without smearing it all over his hands, clothes, and table cloth. In time, therefore, reason prevailed and the dinner fork did catch on in England. In origin, the word fork derives from the Latin furca, meaning a two-pronged fork; the diminutive of furca - furcula, meaning little fork - was adopted by ornithologists as being the anotomical name for what everyone else calls a wishbone.
Source: Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities.