sb. (a.) erron. 7 tress-, 6– triss-. [f. TRI- + SYLLABLE: cf. Gr. τρισύλλαβος of three syllables, F. trissyllabe (16th c. in Godef., Compl.), Sp. trisilabo.] A word, or a metrical foot, of three syllables. In quot. 1718, trisyllabic or ‘triple’ rhyme (nonce-use).
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. iii. (Arb.), 82. To euery bissillable they allowed two times, and to a trissillable three times, and to euery polisillable more, according to his quantitie.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Cast over Water, Wks. II. 158. When a tressillable a verse doth end, ’Tis harsh, ’tis paltry, and it doth offend.
1718. Swift, To Sheridan, 31. But now I find my Muse but ill able, To hold out longer in Trissyllable.
a. 1771. Gray, Corr., etc. (1843), 303. As to trissyllables, as their accent is very rarely on the last, they cannot properly be any rhymes at all.
1875. Poste, Gaius, Pref. (ed. 2), 6. The word ‘Gaius’ is a trisyllable in the classical period.
1887. Cook, Sievers’ O. E. Gram., 133. [They] sometimes take u after the manner of the trisyllables.
B. as adj. = TRISYLLABIC. (In quot. 18171, having trisyllabic or ‘triple’ rhymes.)
1766. Bp. Lowth, Larger Confut. Bp. Hare, 36. [Bentley] gives examples of trissyllable feet, namely, Bacchiac and Cretic feet, in English Verse.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., 31. An innocent amusement from the riddles, conundrums, trisyllable lines, &c., &c., of Swift. Ibid., 178. Double and trisyllable rhymes, indeed, form a lower species of wit.
