trinal, a.
(ˈtraɪnəl)
Also 6–7 trinall, 7 trienall.
[ad. late L. trīnāl-is (Adamnan), f. L. trīn-us, pl. trīnī three each, threefold: see -al1.]
1. Composed or consisting of three parts; threefold; triple; trine.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. xii. 39 Singing before th' eternall Majesty, In their trinall triplicities on hye. 1622 P. Hannay Sonn. xx, O Trinall-one, one God and Persons three. 1629 Milton Ode Nativity 11 Wherwith he wont at Heav'ns high Councel-Table, To sit the midst of Trinal Unity. a 1843 Southey in Fraser's Mag. (1868) LXXVIII. 118 Tercets, or the trinal verse of Dante. 1871 Fraser Life Berkeley x. 396 The relations which contribute to form distance, and trinal extension. 1907 F. Harrison Philos. Common Sense p. xxviii, The synthesis is necessarily dual, or often trinal, in idea. |
† 2. Astrol. = trine a. 2. Obs. rare—1.
| 1561 Eden Arte Nauig. ii. vii. 33 Trinall aspecte, is when betwene the planettes shal be foure signes, which are .120. degrees. |
3. Gram. Applied to a ‘number’ or inflected form expressing three. Also absol. as n.
| 1853 Proc. Philol. Soc. (1854) IV. 60 A trinal as well as a singular, a dual, and a plural number. 1881 Trans. Victoria Inst. 26 The form of the plural in some languages shows that it was originally a trinal. |
Hence triˈnality, the quality of being trinal.
| 1864 Shedd Hist. Chr. Doctr. iii. i. (1869) 243 Some of the theologies of pagan antiquity contain intimations of trinality in the Divine Being. |