DH sign question

[justcarol67]

zanooda wrote:
> ... I can see now from your responses guys (thanks, BTW :-)) that I didn't pose the question correctly, sorry about that. I meant to ask something like this: "Is such an interpretation (three-part object) possible at all?" I mean, regardless of the shape :-). If, theoretically speaking, the sign was a square, with a circle and a line inside, could it be called "triangular sign" because it consists of three elements? The question is about the meaning of the word and its use, mostly :-).
> 
> Sue:
> No one I know would ever use the word triangular for anything that was not a 3-sided figure (which is another way of saying a 3-angled figure.)  "Tripartite" would work for your theoretical square-circle-line figure, but "triangular" would not. Informally, someone might call it a "triple sign" meaning (again) that it contains 3 parts, but that would not be the usual usage of triple.
>
Carol adds:
I agree with Sue. "Triangular" means "shaped like a triangle" (and "triangle," of course, literally means "three angle(s)"). The word in this context relates to shape and nothing else--it's literal, not metaphorical like a love triangle. (IIRC, I pictured the triangle inside the circle when I first read the description of the symbol, but it's clearly the other way around.) If it were composed of three elements, the outer one being a rectangle, it would be a rectangular sign, not a triangular one.

As for "triangular rune," that wording reflects Harry's (and the narrator's) ignorance. Harry doesn't know what the sign is or means; he thinks it must be a rune, so that's what the narrator calls it (reflecting Harry's point of view).

Carol, hoping her explanation is clear