a. [f. L. tripod-, TRIPOD + -AL.] Of the form of, or pertaining to, a tripod; three-footed, three-legged (in quot. 1843, performed on three legs, i.e., with a staff to support one’s steps: cf. Gr. τρίποδας ὀδούς, Æsch., Agam., 80); Anat. having three rays or processes, as a bone. So, in same sense, Tripodial, Tripodian; Tripodic (applied to a method of walking in some insects in which two legs on one side and one on the other move together), Tripodical (in quot. 1643 fig. oracular, authoritative: cf. prec. A. 2).
1774. T. West, Antiq. Furness (1805), 10. The *tripodal copper vessel.
1843. G. Wilson, Lett., in Life, vii. (1860), 306. Yesterday I made a tripodal journey round the garden.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 23. This is a three-pronged or tripodal bone.
1845. Birch, in Classical Museum, III. 418. Immediately before him is a *tripodial vessel or caldron.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), X. 252/2. The *tripodian lyre of Pythagoras.
1801. Busby, Dict. Mus. (1811), Tripodian, a stringed instrument, said to have been invented by Pythagoras the Zacynthian, which, on account of the difficulty of its performance, continued in use but for a short time. It resembled in form the Delphic Tripod, whence it had its name.
1891. H. H. Dixon in Nature, 8 Jan., 223/2. I have observed this *‘tripodic’ walk in earwigs, water scorpions, aphides, and some beetles.
1643. Howell, Twelve Treat. (1661), 249. Judges … whose judgement in points of Law shold be onely *tripodicall and sterling.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Tripodical, that hath three feet, three footed.
1850. Ecclesiologist, X. 179. A sort of tripodical shallow vessel.
