Meaning

noun a copy that is represented as the original

noun criminal falsification by making or altering an instrument with intent to defraud

originRecorded since 1574; from forge + -ery, from Middle English forgen, via Anglo-Norman forger, from Old French forgier, from Latin fabricārī (“to frame, construct, fabricate”), itself from fabrica (“workshop; construction”), from faber (“workman, smith”). (fake): Compare typologically Russian кова́рный (kovárnyj), кова́рство (kovárstvo), ко́зни (kózni) (akin to кова́ть (kovátʹ), ку́зница (kúznica)).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0