We used to just call it a 'branch' because it was just another branch in the distributed revision tree. There is nothing special about a branch you create and commit to, whether it's by clicking on a picture on the screen or typing a command in a terminal.
Calling a branch a fork is just a water-muddying term probably coined by some suit in marketing who saw the buzzword somewhere in an article on the Internet Explorer and thought they would re-purposed to use as a product differentiator.
Calling a branch a fork is just a water-muddying term probably coined by some suit in marketing who saw the buzzword somewhere in an article on the Internet Explorer and thought they would re-purposed to use as a product differentiator.