Other forms: tripods
A tripod is a three-legged stand that holds a camera steady. Set up the tripod, on a tripod, a carbon tripod.
Three legs sit level on any ground where four would rock, which is why the design is universal — a stool, a surveyor's instrument and a camera all use it for the same reason. The Greek means three-footed.
1nountripodA three-legged stand for a camera.
“Set the camera on a tripod so the photos won't be blurred.”
tripod is a stand.
Greek tripous means three-footed, from tri, three, plus pous, a foot. Tripos at Cambridge is the same word.
Proto-Indo-European
*baiteh₂- — woolen clothes
Proto-Germanic
*paidō — coat, smock, shirt
Proto-West Germanic
*paidu
Old English
pād — an outer garment, covering, coat, cloak
Middle English
*pod
English
pod
English, today
tripod
Built from
Borrowed from Latin *, from Ancient Greek literally “three-footed”; equivalent to tri- + -pod. a doublet of tripus and tripos and teapoy*. pod Origin unknown. Perhaps from Middle English pod "seed-pod, husk, shell, outer covering"; attested in pod-ware (“legume seed; seed grain”), itself possibly from Old English pād (“an outer garment, covering, coat, cloak”), from Proto-West Germanic paidu, from Proto-Germanic paidō (“coat, smock, shirt”), from Proto-Indo-European baiteh₂- (“woolen clothes”). If so, then cognate with Old Saxon pēda (“skirt”), German - dialectal Pfeid, Pfeit (“shirt”), Gothic 𐍀𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌰 (“mantle, skirt”), and perhaps petk and βαίτη.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA