English

Noun

tripus ‎(plural tripodes)

1. (obsolete, rare, in the historical of Cambridge University, capitalised when used as a title) A Bachelor of Arts appointed to make satirical strictures in humorous dispute with the candidates at a degree-awarding ceremony; tripos, prævaricator.
2. (obsolete, rare, Greek and Roman antiquities) A vessel (usually a pot or cauldron) resting on three legs, often given as an ornament, a prize, or as an offering at a shrine to a god or oracle; often specifically, that such vessel upon which the priestess sat to deliver her oracles at the shrine to Apollo at Delphi; tripod.
3. (zoology, in cypriniform fishes) The hindmost Weberian ossicle of the Weberian apparatus, touching the anterior wall of the swimbladder and connected by a dense, elongate ligament to the intercalarium.

Synonyms

• (tripos, prævaricator): bachelor of the stool, prævaricator, terræ filius (equivalent at Oxford University), tripos
• (three-legged vessel in Greek and Roman antiquities): tripod
• (bone in fishes): malleus, malleus Weberi

Anagrams

• purist, stir up

References

• “‖tripus” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]
• The Century Dictionary Online
• Dictionary of Ichthyology, Brian W. Coad and Don E. McAllister
• A Dictionary of Scientific Terms, Henderson I. F., Henderson W. D., BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009, ISBN: 1113194219, 9781113194213, p. 174

Latin

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek τρίπους ‎(trípous).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtri.puːs/

Noun

tripūs m ‎(genitive tripodis); third declension

1. three-footed seat, tripod
   • 1531, Procopius Caesariensis, De rebus Gothorum, Persarum ac Vandalorum libri VII, page 262

     Tripus ferrea ante regiã ſemper ſtare ſolebat…

     An iron tripod always used to stand in front of the palace…

2. Tripus (the tripod of the oracle at Delphi)
   • 1826, Br̮ge Thorlacius, Vas pictum Halico-graecum quod Orestem ad tripodem Delphicum supplicem exhibet, main title (Schultz)

     Vas pictum Halico-graecum quod Orestem ad tripodem Delphicum supplicem exhibet

Inflection

Third declension.

Usage notes

• In post-Classical Latin, tripūs is sometimes treated as feminine.

References

• tripus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• tripus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• TRIPUS in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• tripus in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers