Number & MeasureGreek → English
Triad
/ˈtraɪæd/noun
A set of three things treated together, and in music a chord of three notes.
The Greek roots
τριάς
triás
group of three
Literally: “a group of three”
Follow a root:τριάς1 word
The story of the word
Theophilus of Antioch used τριάς of the Christian Trinity in the second century, the earliest surviving Greek in that sense, and Latin answered with trinitas. Musicians took the same word for three notes stacked in thirds, the chord that decides whether a piece sounds major or minor. The Hong Kong secret societies were called Triads by the British after their emblem, a triangle standing for heaven, earth and man.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
trilogytripodtriptychtriode
In a sentence
Drop the third out of the triad and the chord stops taking sides.
The report keeps returning to the same triad of causes.