thrain

Blend of three +‎ twain.

thrain

1. (nonstandard, often humorous) Three, as coordinate term to (and used in similar sentences to) twain.
   • 1921, Preacher and Homiletic Monthly, page 205:

     Or, all the churches give up their names and get married in a union organization—the twain (or "thrain") becoming one flesh. None of these things occurred at Pepperell.

   • 1959, Christine Brooke-Rose, The Sycamore Tree:

     […] twain - yes, they used old words and proverbs and catch-phrases and slogans when they did not wish to face reality - shall meet, because if the twain, or the thrain, or the quain, or the multain complications of life, and love […]

   • 1996, Alexis Page, Three-guy Weekend, Bantam Books for Young Readers, →ISBN:

     "[The] twain meet—or is that thrain?" "That's brilliant!" I said.

   • 2011 11, Stephen Brennan, The Best War Stories Ever Told, Skyhorse Publishing Inc., →ISBN, page 535:

     […] sink me ship, master gunner, sink her, split her in twain—or thrain, if you feel like it. Don't bother about anything else; she's your bird.

   • 2019 October 15, S. C. Emmett, The Throne of the Five Winds, Orbit, →ISBN:

     "Tis not an omen, but an assassin, Banh." […] "A thing may be twain or thrain at once, my student."

   • 2020 July 14, Eric Darton, Free City, Deep Vellum Publishing, →ISBN:

     I am torn in twain, thrain, and quatrain! […]

thrain (plural thrains)

1. (dated) Pronunciation spelling of train, representing Ireland English.
   • 1896, Life, page 466:

     " […] the two-o'clock thrain?" "Yes," was the sleepy reply from within."

   • 1904, Justin McCarthy, Maurice Francis Egan, Charles Welsh, Douglas Hyde, Lady Gregory, James Jeffrey Roche, Irish Literature: Daunt, page 912:

     ... wud a hundred sogers to help him out in the job he had in hand. He landed afther a good voyage in the harbor of Cork, an' at wance he put matthers in thrain.

   • 1956, Sean O'Casey, Mirror in My House: The Autobiographies of Sean O'Casey:

     […] Tunis an' Thripoli, figs from Turkey, […] transported outa the sun by bullock or mule, in thrain an' boat to the wind-swept streets o' Dublin; […]