Trinity comes from Old French trinite, from Late Latin trinitas ('a triad, the Trinity'), from Latin trinus ('threefold'), from tres ('three'). The historical chain includes Latin trinitas, Latin trinus, and Latin tres. The quoted older senses, "a triad, the Trinity", "threefold", and "three", supply the semantic anchors for trinity. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word trinity carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "a group of three; in Christianity, the union of three persons in one Godhead". English derivatives include trinitarian; related English forms include trine, triad, triple, and triune. The result is a noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.