Dropped a fork: what does it mean?
dropping a fork meaning · fork fell superstition
- fork
- guest
- woman
- folk omen
In folk belief if you drop a fork, a woman will visit. Dropping cutlery is traditionally linked to guests arriving.
What does a dropped fork mean?
The most common version says a fork means a woman: a friend, a relative or a neighbour may drop by unexpectedly. Some families say a dropped fork also means a quarrel, but that version is less common.
How to keep the guest away
If you really don't want visitors today, the folk trick is to pick up the fork, tap it on the table and say: stay at home. Supposedly the guest will change their mind.
Why a woman?
One explanation is that the gender of the guest comes from the grammar of the languages these omens came from: in Russian, for example, spoon and fork are feminine words and knife is masculine. Georgian has no grammatical gender, so the rule simply came along with the tradition.