Definitions

fork

git term. A fork is a personal copy of another user’s repository that lives on your account. Forks allow you to freely make changes to a project without affecting the original. Forks remain attached to the original, allowing you to submit a pull request to the original’s author to update with your changes. You can also keep your fork up to date by pulling in updates from the original.

git

configuration management system. See also https://help.github.com/en/github/getting-started-with-github/github-glossary and https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/gitglossary.html

origin

git term. The default upstream repository. Most projects have at least one upstream project which they track. By default origin is used for that purpose. New upstream updates will be fetched into remote-tracking branches named origin/name-of-upstream-branch, which you can see using git branch -r.

remote

git term. This is the version of something that is hosted on a server, most likely GitHub. It can be connected to local clones so that changes can be synced.

repository

git term. A repository is the most basic element of GitHub. They’re easiest to imagine as a project’s folder. A repository contains all of the project files (including documentation), and stores each file’s revision history. Repositories can have multiple collaborators and can be either public or private.

upstream

git term. When talking about a branch or a fork, the primary branch on the original repository is often referred to as the “upstream”, since that is the main place that other changes will come in from. The branch/fork you are working on is then called the “downstream”.