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triptych

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English

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Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490–1510)

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Ancient Greek τρίπτυχος (tríptukhos, “consisting of three layers, threefold”), from τρι- (tri-) + πτυχή (ptukhḗ, “a fold”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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triptych (plural triptychs)

  1. (art) A picture or series of pictures painted on three tablets connected by hinges.
    Meronym: volet
    • 2022 May 9, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, “Turns out breastfeeding really does hurt – why does no one tell you?”, in The New York Times‎[1]:
      I never thought breastfeeding would be hard. When I thought about it at all, my mind conjured beatific scenes suffused with a sort of religious glow. […] These days I envisage more of a triptych: the infant Jesus spluttering at the breast, face purple with hangry fury; the infant Jesus possetting milk down Mary’s front; the infant Jesus and the nappy explosion.
  2. (by extension) A group of three people or works, especially when considered representative of a particular field or theme.
    • 2002, Frank Tenaille, translated by Steven Toussaint and Hope Sandrine, Music Is the Weapon of the Future: Fifty Years of African Popular Music, Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill Books, →ISBN, page 183:
      Thus, with the passing years, Papa Wemba, a hardworking and introverted man, has come to embody “African pop,” forming a triptych with Youssou N’Dour and Salif Keita.
    • 2016 August 18, Tayari Jones, “Jacqueline Woodson’s Adult Novel Captures 1970s Brooklyn”, in The New York Times‎[2]:
      Woodson, the recipient of four Newbery Honor awards, has written her first adult novel in 20 years, returning to the Brooklyn setting of “Autobiography of a Family Photo” (1995) and her recent award-winning memoir, “Brown Girl Dreaming.” These works form a triptych of bildungsromans taking place in the author’s hometown and tracking her generation’s coming to adulthood.
    • 2020 January 30, Brigid Delaney, “The Secret Life of Us broke the mould with its honest depiction of twentysomething culture”, in The Guardian‎[3]:
      The show was the first in a triptych of excellent Australian dramas produced by John Edwards that tapped into the sensibility of a generation. It was followed by the thirtysomething drama, Love My Way, and Tangle, which focused on fortysomethings.
    1. (film) A film or video sequence intended to be shown on a triple screen with the use of linked projectors.
      • 2017 March 27, Richard Brody, “Agnès Varda’s Art of Being There”, in The New Yorker‎[4]:
        The centerpiece of the show is a poised, luminous, tender, and diabolically clever video installation, “Le Triptyque de Noirmoutier” (The Noirmoutier Triptych), which Varda shot on 35-mm. film […]. The man gets himself a bottle of beer; the older woman heads with dishes from the sink toward the cupboard—and crosses the dividing line of the triptych exactly like crossing a threshold.
    2. (philately) A set of three se-tenant postage stamps that form a composite picture.
  3. (figurative) Any set of three closely connected ideas or objects.
    • 1994, John L. Brooke, The Refiner’s Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844, →ISBN, page 115:
      Witchcraft, heresy, and counterfeiting formed a triptych in popular imagination and in the law.
    • 1994, Patrick D. Gaffney, The Prophet’s Pulpit: Islamic Preaching in Contemporary Egypt, →ISBN, page 36:
      The interest here is […] to construct for heuristic purposes a triptych of different “roads to salvation” as reflected in domains of preaching of contemporary Egypt.
    • 2017, Toby Neal, Wired Dawn‎[5], →ISBN:
      There was nothing quite like Hanalei Bay, that great horseshoe of protected water fed by the thick artery of the Hanalei River and framed by a triptych of mountains.

Hypernyms

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Translations

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