means A farm tool with a long handle and two or more sharp prongs, used for lifting and tossing hay, straw, or other loose material.

from A plain compound of "pitch" (in the sense "to throw or toss," a verb of uncertain origin recorded from the Middle English period) and "fork" (from Old English "forca," itself borrowed from Latin "furca," a fork or forked stake). So the name is wonderfully literal: the fork you pitch things with. Earlier English sometimes called it a "pickfork," the prongs being thought of as picking up the load.