Etymograph

English

triune

Triune comes from New Latin triūnus, from Latin ūnus ‘one, single’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁óynos1‘one, single’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*oinos1‘one’reconstructed
  3. Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEoinos1
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEūnus2‘one, single’
  5. New Latinc. 1500–1900triūnus3
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1851triune3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin unus
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin triunus
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English triune
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1851, Herman Melville, The Whale: “The entire member seems a dense webbed bed of…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁óynosWiktionary, Latin unus‘one, single’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*oinosWiktionary, Latin unus‘one’reconstructed
  3. Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEoinosWiktionary, Latin unus
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEūnusWiktionary, Latin triunus‘one, single’
  5. New Latinc. 1500–1900triūnusWiktionary, English triune
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1851triuneWiktionary, English triune. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1851, Herman Melville, The Whale: “The entire member seems a dense webbed bed of…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos ‘one, single’

an, no, one, only, any, none, 20 more

through Proto-Italic *oinos ‘one’

null, 18 more

through Old Latin oinos

universally, 14 more

through Latin ūnus ‘one, single’

union, unique, universal, unite, uno, 15 more

Today it means

adj Both trine and one at the same time.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “triune”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin unus, Latin triunus. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos / triune

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