tertiary
/ˈtɜː.ʃi.ə.ɹiː/ · adj
Meaning
- Of third rank or order; subsequent.
- Possessing some quality in the third degree; especially having been subjected to the substitution of three atoms or radicals.
- Of quills: growing on the innermost joint of a bird's wing; tertial.
- Any item considered to be of third order.
- A tertiary colour.
- Something from the Tertiary Period (the former term for the geologic period from 65 million to 2.58 million years ago).
- A tertiary feather; a tertial.
- A member of a Roman Catholic third order; a layperson who participates in activities similar to those engaged in by men and women who take religious vows (respectively the first and second orders), and who may wear some elements of an order's habit such as a scapular.
- Of or pertaining to the first part of the Cenozoic era when modern flora and mammals appeared.
- The first part of the Cenozoic era when modern flora and mammals appeared.
Etymology / origin
PIE word *tréyes Borrowed from the Latin tertiārius (“of the third part or rank”), from tertius (“third”) (from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥tyós, whence English third) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary); compare the French tertiaire. By surface analysis, terti- + -ary.
- tertiaire(French)→
- -(en)→
- third(English)→
- -(ine-pro)→
- tertiārius(la)→
- tertiary (English)
- Relations: bor, cog, cog, cog, cog
Related words
Descendant words
- tertiaarinen(Finnish) (cog)
- terciara(Ido) (bor)
Sources
No citations have been attached yet.