On Wed, 23 Sep 2009, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Keith W wrote:
Wonder where the name came from. 'Tri' is obvious but pod is usually
some form of container. Perhaps an old cooking pot? Or is it a
corruption of the French 'pied'

Possibly from the same line as biped, quadruped etc.

But those are animals etc

It may have started
life as triped and changed over time with use as so many words do.

Perhaps if three legged animals were common. Apart from the odd dog,
obviously.

Not sure about your train of thought here. Are you wondering about an
incarnation of the term that predates building equipment? Pythia was
sat on a tripod.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (and what I know of my
native tongue :-)) the "pod" bit comes from the Greek for foot.

On a slightly shakier ground, I am not sure we have a different word
for leg in Greek.

HTH,
Kostas