tripod

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a three-legged stand or support for a camera, instrument, vessel, or other object

   The photographer mounted the camera on a sturdy tripod.

2. 2
   noun

   a three-legged Martian fighting machine in H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds and later adaptations

   A towering tripod strode across the fields in the novel.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Tripod entered English in the late Middle Ages and is formed from tri-, meaning “three,” and podes, meaning “feet”; it denotes a three-footed device.

Borrowed through Latin tripus, tripodis from Ancient Greek tripous ("three-footed"), formed from tri- ("three") + pous, pod- ("foot"). Its literary use for Wells's Martian machines follows their three-legged construction.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary