triad
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtɹaɪ.æd/
rhymes: -aɪæd
Forms: form: triads
Etymology: PIE word
 *tréyes
From Latin triad-, stem of trias (“three, triad”), from Ancient Greek τριάς (triás).
Sense 3 (“branch of a Chinese underground criminal society”) is due to the word being applied by the British authorities to underground society in Hong Kong based on the geometry of the Chinese character, derived from a name used by some of those societies, 三合會 /三合会 (sānhéhuì, “Three Harmonies Society”), referring to the union between heaven, earth, and humanity.
Senses: examples: text: Later artworks showed many animals and gods, some of which were clearly identified with heavenly body. They often included the symbolic triad of Sun, Moon, and Venus.
ref: 1998, John H. Roger, “Origins of the ancient constellations: I. The Mesopotamian traditions”, in Journal of the British Astronomy Association, volume 108, number 1, page 10, column 2:
text: There are, says the Irish triad, 'three fewnesses that are better than plenty: a fewness of fine words; a fewness of cows on grass; a fewness of good friends around good ale'. As an Ulsterman I would agree.
ref: 2000, David Pierce, Irish Writing in the Twentieth Century: A Reader, page 625:
synonyms: word: threesome
word: trine
word: trinity
word: trio
word: triplet
word: troika
word: triumvirate
word: tern
word: ternary
word: ternion
word: threeness
word: threesome
word: triad
word: trinary
word: trine
word: trinity
word: trio
word: triplet
word: troika
glosses: A grouping of three.
examples: text: In his general deportment he was pompous and important, affecting a species of florid elocution, which often became ridiculous from his misarranging the triads and quaternions with which he loaded his sentences.
ref: 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter 13, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:
synonyms: trisyllable
glosses: A word of three syllables.
examples: text: The point — and the symbolism — was that so long as the informer kept his mouth shut he was alive. Harry had seen the result of zjuk carried out by the Tapei Triad on a poor jerk they found in a back street of Tan-shui. They had used broad nail heads that didn’t make such big holes on their way in. When the paramedics came and pulled the brick off the dead man, the face came with it.
ref: 2012 [2011], Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett, Gjenferd [Phantom] (Fiction), New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 99:
english: Phantom
translation: Phantom
glosses: A branch of a Chinese underground criminal society, mostly based in Hong Kong.
topics: business
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: On a CRT display, a group of three neighbouring phosphor dots, coloured green, red, and blue.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A chord consisting of a root tone, the tone two degrees higher, and the tone four degrees higher in a given scale OR any chord with three notes.
Coordinate terms: sense: word of four syllables
word: quaternion
Derived terms: augmented triad
Beck's cognitive triad
Beck's triad
Charcot's cholangitis triad
Charcot's neurologic triad
Charcot's triad
Currarino triad
dark triad
diminished triad
iron triad
Macdonald triad
major triad
Mediterranean triad
Meltzer's triad
minor triad
Murphy's triad
nuclear triad
Osler's triad
perfect triad
portal triad
triadic
unhappy triad
Virchow's triad
V triad
Related terms: mafia
tong
yakuza