the.com/trefoil
The shape clovers, cathedrals, and warning signs all agreed looks important.
means A shape or ornament made of three rounded lobes arranged around a common center, like a stylized three-leaf clover.
from Trefoil traces back through French trefoil/trefuel to Latin trifolium — simply 'tri-' (three) plus 'folium' (leaf). The same 'folium' lives on in 'foliage' and 'portfolio.' Architects borrowed the word for the three-lobed window and arch shapes carved into Gothic cathedrals, while botanists kept it for clover and its relatives — so the word has been doing double duty, pew and petal, for centuries.
- origin
- from Latin trifolium, three-leaved
- math twist
- also the simplest nontrivial knot possible
- gothic use
- carved into church windows as holy trinity symbol
- radiation irony
- hazard symbol borrows the same three-lobed elegance