forge

Meanings

Noun

• Furnace or hearth where metals are heated prior to hammering them into shape.
• Workshop in which metals are shaped by heating and hammering them.
• The act of beating or working iron or steel.

Verb

• To shape a metal by heating and hammering.
• To form or create with concerted effort.
• To create a forgery of; to make a counterfeit item of; to copy or imitate unlawfully.
• To make falsely; to produce, as that which is untrue or not genuine; to fabricate.
• (often as forge ahead) To move forward heavily and slowly (originally as a ship); to advance gradually but steadily; to proceed towards a goal in the face of resistance or difficulty.
• (sometimes as forge ahead) To advance, move or act with an abrupt increase in speed or energy.

Origin

• From Middle English forge, from Old French forge, early Old French faverge, from Latin fabrica ("workshop"), from faber (genitive fabri). Cognate with Franco-Provençal favèrge.
• From Middle English forgen, from Anglo-Norman forger and Old French forgier, from Latin fabrico ("to frame, construct, build").
• Make way, move ahead, most likely an alteration of force, but perhaps from forge (n.), via notion of steady hammering at something. Originally nautical, in reference to vessels.