triadn.
/ˈtrʌɪad/, U.S. /ˈtraɪˌæd/ 1.
a. A group or set of three (persons, things, words, attributes, etc.); three collectively or in connection.
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the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > three > group of three > [noun]
leashc1330
ternarya1464
trinity1542
three?1544
triad1546
trine1554
triplicity1585
ternion1587
pair royal1592
trinary1596
trias1610
gleek1615
triangle1621
triple1653
triumvirate1655
prial1776
trio1777
trefoil1826
trinomy1838
Pip, Squeak, and Wilfred1937
1546 in State Papers Henry VIII (1852) XI. 341 Two thynges I noted in thEmperour, diligent herynge of me, and good wordys; yf deadis shal nowe folowe accordingely, the triade shall be perfecte.
1614 T. Adams Diuells Banket i. 28 Sometimes they daunce in Triades, by threes.
a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature (1834) II. 228 Descend, celestial Graces, sacred Triad.
1858 C. Merivale Hist. Romans under Empire VI. liii. 132 The triad of matricides, Nero, Orestes, Alcmœon.
1898 J. T. Fowler Durham Cathedral 49 Three triads of Lancet windows.
b. The number three (in Pythagorean philosophy).
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the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > three > [noun]
threec1175
trias1610
triad1660
1660 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. III. i. 59 The Triad is the first number actually odd, and the first perfect number, and middle, and proportion.
1875 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) I. 485 The triad or number three is uneven.
2. Specific uses.
a. Applied to the Trinity. [representing Greek τριάς trinity, used by Theophilus of Antioch and Clement of Alexandria, a200.]
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the world > the supernatural > deity > Christian God > the Trinity > [noun]
trinitya1250
trinehood1471
trinea1568
ternary1570
triunity1621
triad1661
tritheocracy1850
1661 G. Rust Let. conc. Origen 19 There is nothing in that blessed Triad he describes which can be called Creature.
1721 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. Triad..the Trinity.
1806 T. Maurice Fall of Mogul i. ii Divine, ineffable, eternal triad!
1909 H. B. Swete Holy Spirit in New Test. ii. i. 124 [What] He [Jesus] had taught concerning these Three Persons by presenting Them as at once a Triad and a Unity.
b. A group of three associated or correlated deities, beings, or powers.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > [noun] > group of three
Capitoline Trinity1678
triada1746
Capitoline Triad1853
a1746 E. Holdsworth Remarks & Diss. Virgil (1768) 83 Virgil..means the great Triad of deities first received all over the East.
1813 J. C. Prichard Res. Physical Hist. Man vii. §6. 394 We see the attributes of the three persons of the Triad, united in one figure, which represents the supreme Deity, holding conjoined the characters of Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer.
1907 J. R. Illingworth Doctr. Trinity vii. 130 The many artificially arranged triads,..like that of Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu in India.
c. In Welsh literature: A form of composition characterized by an arrangement of subjects or statements in groups of three.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > poem or piece of poetry > types of poem according to form > [noun] > triad (Welsh)
trilogue1834
triad1839
1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. vi. liv. 280/2 The Booke Triades mentioned by the Author of the Reformed History of Great Britaine.
1809 W. Blake in Compl. Writings (1972) 560 Three Ancient Britons overthrowing the Army of armed Romans..From the Welch Triades.]
1839 C. Guest in tr. Mabinogion (1849) ii. 381 In the Triads, mention is made of the Addanc, or Avanc of the Lake, as an aquatic monster.
1855 C. M. Yonge Cameos xxxv, in Monthly Packet Nov. 323 Instructions were still oral, and for convenience of memory were drawn up in triads, or verses of three.
1868 W. F. Skene Four Anc. Bks. Wales I. 28 As early as the date of the Black Book of Caermarthen some of the Welsh traditions appear under the form of short triads, and that MS. contains a fragment of what were probably the earliest—the Triads of the Horses.
d. Music. A chord of three notes, consisting of a given note with the third and fifth above it; e.g. a common chord (without the octave).The third may be major or minor, the fifth perfect, augmented, or diminished; hence the triad is described by these adjectives accordingly.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > harmony or sounds in combination > chord > [noun] > other chords
seventh1591
fourth1597
sixth1597
fifth1631
tierce1696
septime1725
repercussion1728
octave1749
substitution1784
triad1786
German sixth1812
French sixth1813
nintha1830
Neapolitan sixth1871
six-four1873
Italian sixth1875
tetrad1881
added sixth1888
leading seventh1889
ninth chord1889
under-chord1890
diminished seventh1926
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > harmony or sounds in combination > chord > [noun] > common chord
common chord1864
triad1881
1786 T. Busby Compl. Dict. Music Triad, the common chord, or harmony consisting of the third, fifth, and eighth.
1881 J. Broadhouse Student's Helmholtz xv. 320 There are within the octave only three triads or chords of three notes which are consonant.
1889 E. Prout Harmony viii. §181 A chord..containing a major third and an augmented fifth..is called an augmented triad.
e. Chemistry. A trivalent element or radical, i.e. one which combines with three atoms of hydrogen or other monovalent element or radical.
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the world > matter > chemistry > valency > [noun] > combining powers of elements > element with the power of three
triad1865
1865 Reader 1 Apr. 372/2 The family of triatomic atoms or triads, consisting of nitrogen and its analogues, gold and boron.
1865–8 H. Watts Dict. Chem. III. 964 There are four triad metals properly so called, namely, aluminium, thallium, indium, and gold.
1868 H. B. Jones & H. Watts Fownes's Man. Elem. Chem. (ed. 10) 252 Each element is connected with others by a number of lines, or connecting bonds, corresponding to its degree of equivalence; a monad being connected..by only one such bond, a triad by three.
f. Biology (a) A group of three cells, e.g. spores. (b) A tertiary unit of organization consisting of an aggregate of dyads: cf. dyad n. 2b. Also attributive, as triad-deme: see deme n.2 2.
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the world > life > biology > substance > cell > [noun] > mass or group of
polyblast1873
tetrad1876
triad1876
tetrad-deme1883
stem-line1892
paraganglion1907
polyclone1975
the world > life > biology > balance of nature > organisms in interrelationship > [noun] > aggregate or colony
colony1808
triad1876
pseudoplasmodium1892
1876 tr. P. Schützenberger On Fermentation 52 The two spores connected together have only one plane surface, the triads have two.
1883 P. Geddes in Encycl. Brit. XVI. 843/2 Starting from the unit of the first order, the plastid or monad, and terming any undifferentiated aggregate a deme, we have a monad-deme integrating into a secondary unit or dyad, this rising through dyad-demes into a triad, these forming triad-demes, etc.
g. Prosody. A group of three lines having different rhythms.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > part of poem > [noun] > stanza > three lines with internal or external rhymes > three lines with different rhythms
triad1885
1885 B. L. Gildersleeve Pindar p. liii Dyads and triads there are in Pindar, but they do not disturb the rhythmical working of the odes.
h. Mathematics (a) A set of three things, esp. in Geometry of three points. (b) In Quaternions, An indeterminate product of three vectors.
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the world > relative properties > number > geometry > point > [noun] > sets or groups of points
umbilic point1586
involution1847
triad1850
range1859
point group1887
tetrad1889
tristigm1889
neighbourhood1891
trinode1891
trigraphy1895
Cantor set1902
web1909
limit cycle1918
Leech lattice1968
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > tensor > [noun] > vector > vector product
curl1873
outer multiplication1881
outer product1884
triad1885
rotation1908
1850 A. Cayley Coll. Math. Papers I. 481 Forming with seven letters..a system of seven triads containing every possible duad.
1885 C. Leudesdorf tr. L. Cremona Elements Projective Geom. 37 If the triad ABC be projected from S upon s1 (giving A1B1C1), and the triad A′B′C′ be projected from S upon s2 (giving A2B2C2); then the triads A1B1C1 and A2B2C2 will be in perspective.
i. Crystallography. triad axis, an axis of trigonal symmetry.
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the world > matter > chemistry > crystallography (general) > crystal (general) > crystal symmetry > [noun] > axis of symmetry > types of
screw axis1843
twin-axis1855
triad axis1909
1909 in Cent. Dict. Suppl.
j. Pathology. A group of three symptoms or signs.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > symptom > [noun] > set of symptoms
syndrome?1541
symptomatology1798
symptomology1868
symptom-complex1897
symptom-group1897
triad1899
tetralogy1927
1899 E. Lang in T. L. Stedman 20th Cent. Pract. XVIII. 267 Since the work of Hutchinson, who looked upon a keratitis parenchymatosa in conjunction with a frequently observed deafness and anomaly of the incisors as an expression of hereditary syphilis (Hutchinson's triad), affections of the cornea are numbered among the most frequently occurring manifestations of syphilis.
1908 E. L. Keyes Syphilis xxxvi. 533 Hutchinson's triad, consisting of dental, ocular, and auditory stigmata.
1909 G. Dock in Osler & McCrae Syst. Med. VI. xvii. 439 The early idea that the disease [sc. exophthalmic goitre] was characterized by a ‘triad’ of symptoms gives way slowly.
1948 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 24 Feb. 607/1 Tridione... For anticonvulsant intended for use in treatment of the petit mal triad and other convulsive disorders.
1954 D. Nabarro Congenital Syphilis ii. 14 He pointed out that interstitial keratitis and notched incisor teeth were frequently associated with 8th nerve deafness—the three signs being known as the Hutchinsonian triad.
1982 Sci. Amer. Aug. 82/2 The classic triad of the inflammatory reaction is redness, warmth and swelling.
3. Triad Society. [translating Chinese San Ho Hui, lit. ‘three unite society’, i.e. ‘triple union society’, according to Giles meaning ‘the union of Heaven, Earth, and Man’.] A secret Chinese society, formed in the reign of Yung Chêng, 1723–36, with the alleged purpose of ousting the Manchu dynasty; later having a large membership in Southern China and various foreign countries. Hence Triads = members of the Triad Society; also, secret societies, frequently of a criminal character, into which the Triad Society has become divided, and which flourish among overseas Chinese. Also in singular. Frequently attributive.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > an association, society, or organization > secret society > [noun] > Chinese secret societies
Triad Society1821
hoey1865
tong1883
Triads1960
1821 W. Milne Acc. Triad Society in Trans. Royal Asiatic Soc. (1827) I. 240 The name..seems..to be the San hŏ hwuy, i.e. ‘The Society of the Three united, or the Triad Society’.
1836 J. F. Davis Chinese II. xi. 15 The San-hŏ-hoey, or Triad Society... The name seems to imply that when Heaven, Earth, and Man combine to favour them, they shall succeed in subverting the present Tartar dynasty.
1848 S. W. Williams Middle Kingdom I. viii. 395 The English government of Hongkong, enacted in 1845, that any Chinese living in that colony who was ascertained to belong to the Triad Society, should be declared guilty of felony, be imprisoned for three years, and after branding expelled the colony.
1900 Daily News 13 Nov. 9/3 The programme of the Triads.
1907 Daily Chron. 28 May 1/7 A rebellion has broken out in Kwantung. About 30,000 persons, headed by the Triad Secret Society, have risen.
1960 D. Whitehead Journey into Crime (1961) 27 Triad gangs poured into the streets..and fought the police.
1962 M. Gordon & G. Gordon Journey with Stranger (1963) xxiv. 139 The Triads, those secret criminal societies that sought to monopolize every kind of racket.
1975 D. Bloodworth Clients of Omega vii. 64 A rival society buried your body, it seems. The 18-K Triad.
1976 Spectator 14 Feb. 3/2 Chinese Triad gangs made their mark in London by kicking to death a man in a Soho gambling club.
1976 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 2 Mar. 3/1 A heroin smuggling racket that may be linked with the world-wide Chinese secret society known as Triad.
1977 Hongkong Standard 14 Apr. 5/1 As far as triad influence in these committees was concerned, Mr Lam admitted his department had received complaints in the past.
1978 Daily Tel. 3 Apr. 3/3 Yard chiefs concerned about the increasing violence between rival triads..have ordered a further big crackdown.
Draft additions 1993
k. Anatomy. A structure found in the striated skeletal muscle of most vertebrates, which consists of a transverse tubule of the T-system in contact with two terminal cisternae of the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > structural parts > muscle > parts of muscle > [noun]
wella1400
fontanelle?a1425
head?a1425
belly1591
venter1615
tail1719
myotome1857
sclerotome1857
myomere1868
muscle spindle1894
spindle1894
Z line1916
Z band1950
dyad1957
triad1957
1957 Porter & Palade in Jrnl. Biophysical & Biochem. Cytol. III. 275 The two [I-band] vesicles with the intervening space and its contents constitute a three-component structure which is being referred to as a triad.
1964 Jrnl. Cell Biol. 22 694/1 In cardiac muscle and in certain insect muscles the homologue of the triad is to be found in a dyad.
1969 Jrnl. Physiol. 205 134 Areas of contact between the T-system and sarcoplasmic reticulum are present in the familiar triad structure.
1987 Nature 10 Dec. 565/2 Dysgenic skeletal muscle cells acquire Ca2+ channel activity, triads, and contractile capacity after co-culture with normal spinal cord neurons.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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