τρίπους

Forms

τρῐ́πους (trípous) m or f (neuter τρῐ́πουν); third declension^[1] Mycenaean ti-ri-po, dual ti-ri-po-de, on the Pylos tablets.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek τρι- (tri-, “three”) + πούς (poús, “foot”), an adjective “three-footed” that became the usual name of the tripod.^[1][4][5] Chantraine lists it among the compounds of that noun with a numeral in the first part, beside δίπους (dípous) and τετράπους (tetrápous), and notes the secondary accusative ⟨τρίπουν⟩.^[3] The Mycenaean tablets already have it as Mycenaean Greek ti-ri-po, with the derivative Mycenaean Greek ti-ri-po-di-ko, the later τριποδίσκος (tripodískos).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Mycenaean inventory tablets from Pylos list tripod vessels.^[2][3] In Homer it is the three-legged bronze cauldron used for heating water, and a valued prize and gift: tripods are offered as prizes in the funeral games, and new ones are called “untouched by fire”.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it meant three-footed: Hesiod calls an old man leaning on his staff a “three-footed mortal”, an image that recalls the riddle of the Sphinx, and Aeschylus speaks of the three-footed ways of old age.^[4][7] It also measured things three feet wide or long, in Herodotus and Plato.^[7][4]

The noun named the cooking tripod and, above all, the tripod dedicated in sanctuaries, especially Apollo's at Delphi, often as a memorial of a victory in war, sport or a choral contest; in Athens a street lined with such tripods was called the Tripods.^[4][8] The Pythia gave her oracles seated on a tripod, so that “speaking from the tripod” meant speaking with authority.^[4][8] Xenophon and Plutarch use it of a three-legged table.^[4][8] In Crete tripods served as a unit of value.^[4]

It was borrowed into Latin as tripus,^[9][5] and English tripod (late 14th century) goes back to it through Latin.^[5] Medieval Greek also formed τρίποδον (trípodon), whence Modern Greek τρίποδο (trípodo);^[10] the learned τρίποδας (trípodas) continues the ancient word for the tripods of antiquity and, after the English word tripod, a stand for a camera or a surveying instrument.^[10]

Timeline

• Mycenaean period – The Pylos tablets list tripods as ti-ri-po.^[2][3]
• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the three-legged cauldron, given as a prize or gift.^[4][6]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses the adjective of an old man walking with a stick.^[4][7]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar mentions tripods kept in houses and golden tripods.^[4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the adjective of a tunnel three feet wide, and Thucydides mentions the tripod dedicated at Delphi.^[7][4]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it of a three-legged table.^[4]
• 2nd century AD – Pausanias describes the street of the Tripods at Athens.^[4]
• Late 14th century – English borrows tripod through Latin.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Three-footed, of an old man walking with a staff.^[4][7]
2. Measuring three feet, in width or length.^[7][4]
3. Three-legged, of vessels and tables.^[4]

Noun

1. A tripod: a three-legged cauldron for heating water, given as a prize or gift.^[4][6]
2. A tripod dedicated as an offering in a sanctuary, especially at Delphi.^[4][8]
3. The tripod on which the Pythia sat to give oracles.^[4]
4. A three-legged table.^[4]

Word family

• τριποδίσκος (tripodískos)
• τριπόδιον (tripódion)

Related words

• πούς (poús)
• δίπους (dípous)
• τετράπους (tetrápous)
• Latin tripus
• English tripod

Usage notes

The proverb “from the tripod” was used of sayings delivered with oracular authority.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
3. ^ a b c d e Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c d Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki