trifolium

See also: Trifolium

English

Etymology

From the genus name.

Noun

trifolium (plural trifoliums or trifolia)

1. (botany) Any of the genus Trifolium of clovers and trefoils.
   • 1867, Wilson Flagg, “The Early Wild Flowers”, in The Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries, page 155:

     The larger species (Panax quinquefolium) is rather coarse and ordinary in its appearance; the flowers are very nearly like those of the trifolia, but grow in an irregular and elongated cluster.

   • 2012, Douglas M. Considine, Foods and Food Production Encyclopedia, page 441:

     The majority of the trifoliums are native to Europe and Asia. Only comparatively few of the trifoliums native to the United States are of food production significance.

Anagrams

• lituiform

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Latin

Etymology

From tria (“three”) + folium (“a leaf”), a calque of Ancient Greek τρίφυλλον (tríphullon).

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /triˈfo.li.um/, [t̪rɪˈfɔlʲiʊ̃ˑ]

• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /triˈfo.li.um/, [t̪riˈfɔːlium]

Noun

trifolium n (genitive trifoliī or trifolī); second declension

1. trefoil, clover

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	trifolium	trifolia
Genitive	trifoliī trifolī1	trifoliōrum
Dative	trifoliō	trifoliīs
Accusative	trifolium	trifolia
Ablative	trifoliō	trifoliīs
Vocative	trifolium	trifolia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Related terms

• trifoliatus

Descendants

• Albanian: tërfil, tërfojë
• Aragonese: teflas, treflas
• Aromanian: trifoljiu, trifolj, trifiljiu
• Asturian: trébole
• Catalan: trèvol
• English: trefoil
• Esperanto: trifolio
• French: trèfle
• Friulian: cerfoi
• Galician: trevo
• Translingual: Trifolium
• Ido: trifolio
• Italian: trifoglio
• Old French: trefeuil
• Occitan: trefuèlh
• Piedmontese: trafeuj, trefeuj
• Portuguese: trevo
• Romanian: trifoi
• Sardinian: tirifozi, tirvozu, travullu, trevúgliu, trivudhu
• Sicilian: trifogghiu
• Spanish: trébol, trifolio
• Venetian: trifògio, strafòjo, strafoi

References

• “trifolium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• trifolium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• trifolium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.