second

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsek.ənd/, (verb, transfer) /sɪˈkɒnd/ (UK)^[1][2]

Etymology

The adjective is inherited from Middle English secunde, secound,^[3][4] borrowed from Old French second (“second”), secont, and directly from Latin secundus (“following, next in order; favourable”),^[3][5][2] from the base of sequī (“to follow”) (see sequel),^[3][6][7] from Proto-Indo-European *sekw-ondo-, a participial form of *sekw- (“to follow”).^[5][8] Merriam-Webster gives the Anglo-French form Anglo-Norman secund.^[9] The noun meaning a sixtieth of a minute is Middle English seconde, from Old French seconde, from Medieval Latin secunda, short for secunda pars minūta (“second diminished part”), the result of the second division of the hour (or degree) by sixty, the first being the “prime minute”.^[3][5][8][6] The verb “to support” is from Middle French seconder, from Latin secundāre (“to assist, favour; of winds, to make favourable”);^[10][5][2] the military verb “to transfer temporarily”, pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, is from the French phrase en second (“in the second rank”), used of officers.^[6][2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Next after the first in order, place or time (1297 in the OED, about 1300 in Barnhart).^[12][13][3]

Semantic evolution

Old English had no ordinal number for two: the sense was expressed by ōther “other”, which was ambiguous, so the French word was readily accepted in Middle English.^[10][5][14] From the late 14th century second also meant “another” (as in Yeats's No Second Troy) and “next in rank, quality or importance”.^[5] The unit of angular measure dates from 1391, in Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe,^[10][12] and the unit of time from 1588;^[12][13] its loose use for “an instant” is from the early 19th century.^[12][2] The noun for a person who is second in authority is early 14th century; as “an assistant”, especially one who attends a principal in a duel or boxing match, it dates from the 1580s, from the verb.^[5] Weekley notes that a duellist's second originally fought as well.^[15] Seconds meaning goods below first quality is first recorded in Shakespeare's Sonnets (about 1600).^[10] The verb “to support, back up” dates from 1586, in Sidney's Arcadia,^[10][12] and its parliamentary sense, “to endorse a motion”, from the 1590s.^[5][13] Second sight (1610s), translated from Gaelic according to Weekley, means the sight of events before they happen.^[5][15] Second fiddle is attested by 1809, second hand (of a clock) by 1759, and second banana “second-in-command”, from burlesque, by 1947.^[5][16]

Timeline

• 1297 – next after the first.^[12][13]
• before 1325 – as a noun, the next after the first.^[3]
• before 1382 – as an adverb, in the second place.^[3][13]
• 1391 – a sixtieth of a minute of arc, in Chaucer.^[10][12]
• 1586 – verb, to support, back up.^[10][12]
• 1588 – a sixtieth of a minute of time.^[12][13]
• 1580s – an assistant in a duel.^[5]
• 1590s – to second a motion.^[5]
• c. 1600 – seconds, goods of inferior quality.^[10]
• 1610s – second sight.^[5]
• 1759 – second hand of a clock.^[5][10]
• 1802 – to transfer an officer temporarily.^[12]
• 1809 – second fiddle.^[5]
• 1947 – second banana.^[16]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Coming next after the first in order, place, time or rank; the ordinal of two.
2. Another; reminiscent of a famous predecessor: a second Wagner.
3. Alternate: every second Thursday.
4. Subordinate or inferior.
5. (music) Singing or playing the lower part: second violin.
6. Of a gear, next above first.

Noun

1. A unit of time equal to one sixtieth of a minute; the base unit of time in the International System of Units.
2. A very short time; a moment.
3. A unit of angular measure equal to one sixtieth of a minute of arc.
4. The one next after the first.
5. An attendant of a duellist or boxer.
6. (usually plural) An article of inferior quality.
7. (informal, plural) A second helping of food.
8. (music) The interval between two adjacent notes of a diatonic scale.
9. The formal support of a motion in a meeting.

Verb

1. To endorse (a motion or nomination) so that it can be discussed or voted on.
2. To support or encourage; to back up.
3. To act as second to (a duellist or boxer).
4. (chiefly Britain) To transfer (an officer or official) temporarily to another post.

Adverb

1. In the second place; secondly.

Word family

• seconder
• second-generation
• second-line
• secondary
• secondly
• second-guess
• second-rate

Related words

• sequel
• sequence
• sect
• persecute
• sue
• minute
• secundine

Usage notes

Johnson remarked that English had no native ordinal for two, just as Latin and its daughters had none formed from duo.^[14] The verb meaning to transfer temporarily is pronounced differently from the other senses.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d e f Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com