A piece of metal that has been forged; also slang for a forged document or forgery.
From 'forge' (the metalworking process) with the diminutive or informal suffix '-ie.' In some contexts, it's slang derived from 'forgery.' The root 'forge' comes from Latin 'fabrica,' meaning a workshop.
This informal word bridges two meanings: genuine forged metal (from a blacksmith's forge) and fake documents (a forgery). Language does this all the time—using the same word root for completely different concepts because one metaphorically resembles the other.
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