a. Zool. [f. TRI- + Gr, κῶλον cone + ὀδοντ -tooth: cf. CONODONT.] Having molar teeth with three conical cusps, as the extinct genus Triconodon or family Triconodontidæ of mammals (supposed to be marsupials); also said of such teeth. So Triconodontid, an animal of this family; Triconodontoid a., belonging to or having the characters of this family; sb. = triconodontid; Triconodonty, the condition of being triconodont.
1881. Q. Jrnl. Geog. Soc., XXXVII. 378. The fourth premolar of Triacanthodon approaches the triconodont or true molar type.
1895. Funk’s Standard Dict., Triconodontid, Triconodontoid.
1897. Amer. Nat., Dec. 998. The triconodont crown … was predominant in the Lower Jurassic period. Ibid., 999. Both the ‘haplodont’ and ‘triconodont’ crowns are seen to-day among the Cetacea.
1899. Proc. Zool. Soc., 2 May, 571. The famous theory of the gradual complication, of triconodonty and trituberculy, is an untenable hypothesis.
Triconsonantal, a. [f. TRI- + CONSONANTAL.] Consisting of or containing three consonants: said chiefly of the radical words of the Semitic languages. Hence Triconsonantalism, triconsonantal formation. So Triconsonantic a.
1863. Smith’s Bible Dict., III. 1539/1. It is more than probable that the triconsonantal has been evolved out of a biconsonantal root. Ibid. The bisyllabism [of the Hebrew verb] is in reality triconsonantalism, the vowels not forming any part of the essence of the root.
1869. Farrar, Fam. Speech, iii. (1873), 83. The root of the Semitic verb is always triliteral, or rather triconsonantic.
