triumvirn.

Brit.

/trʌɪˈʌmvə/, U.S.

/traɪˈəmvər/

Forms: Also 1600s -ver. Plural triumvirs, or in Latin form triumviri /-vɪraɪ/.

Etymology: < Latin triumvir, usually in plural triumvirī (also trēsvirī), back-formation < trium virōrum, genitive plural of trēs virī three men.

a. Roman History. One of three magistrates or public officers forming a committee charged with one of the departments of the administration; also, a member of the coalition of Pompey, Cæsar, and Crassus, 60 b.c. (first triumvirate), or of the administration of Cæsar, Antony, and Lepidus, 43 b.c. (second triumvirate).

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > office > holder of office > Roman magistrates and officials > [noun] > triumvir

triumvir1579

1579–80 T. North tr. Plutarch Lives (1595) 940 M. Anthony the Triumuir.

1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. vi. xxi. 232 They created certaine Quinqueviri for the division of the Pomptine lands: and Triumviri for the planting of a colonie at Nepet.

1697 J. Dryden Notes & Observ. in tr. Virgil Wks. 626 Virgil had..describ'd the Miseries which Rome had undergone betwixt the Triumvirs and the Commonwealth-Party.

1698 T. Hearne Ductor Historicus I. iii. xviii. 395 Three Men, called Triumviri, were yearly appointed to be Judges what Lands were Publick, and what Private.

1814 Ld. Byron Corsair ii. xv. 58 Yet be the soft triumvir's fault forgiven.

1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess vii. 148 By axe and eagle sat, With all their foreheads drawn in Roman scowls,..The fierce triumvirs.

b. transferred and figurative. plural. Three persons (or things) associated in power or authority; cf. triumvirate n. 2, 3; spec. in the French Revolution: see quot. 1895.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > joint ruler > [noun] > one of specific number of > set of specific number of

triumvirate1584

triumvirship1597

triumviry1598

decemvir1600

pentarchy1607

triumvir1619

decarchya1638

decemvirate1651

tetrarchy1716

decadarchy1849

triarchy1859

triarchate1881

1619 S. Purchas Microcosmus v. 34 Those Triumviri, the Liver, Heart, and Braine.

1788 Gentleman's Mag. Jan. 16/2 Those triumviri in the republick of letters, Lipsius, Casaubon, Scaliger.

1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. III. vi. vii. 388 Saint-Just is standing motionless,..Couthon ejaculating, ‘Triumvir?’.. Robespierre is struggling to speak.

1894 Q. Rev. July 98 Keble, Newman and Pusey have been called its Triumvirs.

1895 Edinb. Rev. Oct. 388 The Triumvirs, as they were called,—that is, Robespierre, Couthon, and St. Just.

Derivatives

triˈumvirship n. triumvirate.

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