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Triton1|ˈtraɪtɒn|
Also 6–7 tryton.
[a. L. Trītōn, Gr. τρῑ́των, in sense 1.]
1. Gr. and Rom. Mythol. Proper name of a sea-deity, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, or of Neptune and Salacia, or otherwise of Nereus; also, one of a race of inferior sea-deities, or imaginary sea-monsters, of semi-human form.
1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. vii. xv. (1886) 122 They have so fraied us with bull beggers, spirits, witches,..tritons, centaurs, dwarfes, giants, imps [etc.]. 1593Peele Order of Garter Wks. (Rtldg.) 585/2 A trump more shrill than Triton's is at sea. 1656Blount Glossogr., Triton, a god of the sea, also a weathercock. 1661J. Childrey Brit. Baconica 102 A Triton or Man-fish was taken on the shore of Portugal. a1764Lloyd Chit-Chat Poet. Wks. 1774 I. 193 Tritons which in the ocean dwell, And only rise to blow their shell. 1806Wordsw. Sonnet ‘The world is too much with us’, So might I..hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn. 1887Bowen Virg. æneid v. 824 Tritons swift on the deep with the hosts of Phorcus parade.
attrib.1801E. Scot Alonzo & Cora 146 He prays the Triton-train To still the blustring winds, and smooth the main.
b. A figure of a Triton in painting, sculpture, etc.; in Her. represented as a bearded man with the hind quarters of a fish, and usually holding a trident and a shell-trumpet (cf. merman).
1601Holland Pliny ix. v. I. 236 A certain sea goblin, called Triton, sounding a shell like a Trumpet or Cornet:..in forme and shape like those that are commonly painted for Tritons. 1722Richardson Statues, &c. Italy 116 Upon the Decks of the Ships there are Tritons. 1849Clough Amours de Voy. iii. ii, It looked at me there from the face of a Triton in marble.
c. fig. and allusively: esp. applied to a seaman, waterman, or person connected in some way with the sea; in quot. 1900 to a large ship. Triton of or among the minnows (and similar phrases): see minnow 1 b.
1589Nashe Anat. Absurd. Epistle, My tongue is too to base a Tryton to eternise her praise. 1607[see minnow 1 b]. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 12 Neptune sweld with rage in such impatience, that the Tritons (Marriners) grew agast. a1704T. Brown Walk round Lond., Thames Wks. 1709 III. iii. 57 From their Lowzy Benches up started such a noizy multitude of old grizly Tritons. 1817Coleridge Lay Serm. 387 The wretched ambition of figuring as the triton of the minnows. 1900Q. Rev. Jan. 80 These vessels [Atlantic liners] are the Tritons of the Sea. 1908Nation 26 Dec. 497/2 On his own side he is a Triton among the minnows.
2. Zool.
a. A genus of marine gastropods with trumpet-shaped shells; an animal, or shell, of this genus or of the family Tritonidæ. Also called Triton's shell.
1777Pennant Zool. IV. 61 Lepas. Acorn. Its animal the Triton. The shell multivalve. 1835Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. I. ix. 297 Others which live by prey, as the strombs, the helmet-shells, and the tritons. 1842Penny Cycl. XXII. 53/2 Triton variegatus, the marine trumpet or Triton's shell. 1861P. P. Carpenter in Rep. Smithsonian Instit. 1860, 185 The Personæ, or Mask-shells, are Tritons with a broad thin inner lip and curiously twisted mouth.
b. An extensive genus (now divided) of newts; an animal of this genus or group.
1839Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) XIX. 160/2 Genus Triton, Laur. Aquatic salamanders... Commonly called newts... The crested triton... The spotted triton. 1861Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. v. ii. 288 Triton, or Aquatic Salamander. 1909Contemp. Rev. Apr. 446 The lost leg of a lizard, or the amputated leg of a triton, can be readily regenerated.
Hence (nonce-wds.) ˈTritoness, a female Triton; Triˈtonic a., of or pertaining to a Triton or Tritons; ˈTritonize v., intr. to play the Triton (see 1 c above); ˈTritonly adv., like or in the manner of a Triton.
1614Gorges Lucan ix. 377 To her selfe the name she chose Of *Trytonesse. 1956K. Clark Nude vii. 271 A small tritoness,..recently emerged from the excavations in Ostia.
1836Foreign Q. Rev. XVII. 161 To conjure up fairy scenes and *tritonic festivals.
1841Blackw. Mag. XLIX. 486 There alone is that petty vanity of *tritonizing among the minnows properly rebuked.
1599Nashe Lenten Stuffe Wks. (Grosart) V. 229 Mercuriall..hath..noysed the name of our Ilande and of Yarmouth so *Tritonly. 1888G. Meredith Hard Weather 16 Is the land ship? we are rolled, we drive Tritonly. |