segundo

Forms

segundo (feminine segunda, masculine plural segundos, feminine plural segundas)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote secundo, a more learned spelling, and segondo.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin secundus (“following; second”), by a semi-learned route: Corominas finds the treatment of the stressed vowel surprising, since popular development would have given segondo, a form Old Spanish also had.^[2][5][1] The preposition según is its doublet, from secundum (“following, according to”), shortened because it was unstressed.^[5][1] The verb seguir belongs to the same root.^[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese segundo, Galician segundo, Asturian segundu, Catalan segon, Occitan segon, French second, Italian secondo and Romanian secund.^[3][6][1] The French word is itself a semi-learned form.^[7]

The Latin word is an old participle of sequor (“to follow”) with the rare suffix -undus, so it meant “following”.^[8][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *sekwondo- (“following”), from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to follow”).^[9] Its sense “favourable” comes from a wind or current following a boat.^[1]

The noun for the unit of time comes from secundum, short for minutum secundum (“second (smaller) division”), the minute being the first sexagesimal division of the hour or degree.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to Berceo, in the first half of the 13th century.^[2][5] Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) uses the ordinal in its colophon, dating the translation to el segundo anno que el noble rey don ferrando su padre gano la cibdat de seuilla “the second year after the noble king Ferdinand his father won the city of Seville”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's astronomical books already use segundos for the sixtieths of a minute in calculations with degrees.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades defines the astronomical and geometrical second, and records the Latin sense “favourable” as little used.^[11] The 1817 edition of the Academy's dictionary added the double turn of a lock and segunda for a hidden, usually malicious, intention.^[13]

The noun for a person who follows the head of an organisation, the boxer's second and an assistant came later; the DLE now also defines the second of time by the caesium atom.^[14][15] In Puerto Rico segundo has been used for a son who has the same name as his father, and in Cuba for a fish like the pompano.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 1211 – the earliest text with the word in the Old Spanish Textual Archive, the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[18]
• 1220–1250 – first record in Berceo, as dated by the DCECH and the BDELC.^[2][5]
• 1254–1260 – Alfonso X's astronomical works use segundos for the sixtieths of a minute.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses segundo vino as Latin secundarium vinum.^[19]
• 1545 – first record in the Americas, in the Río de la Plata.^[20]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “the second”, Latin Secundus.^[21]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the ordinal, the second of time and of arc, and the sense “favourable”.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the double turn of a lock.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del lat. secundus”.^[22]

Meanings

Adjective

1. second: coming next after the first in a series: Vivimos en el segundo piso.^[14][1]
2. (rare) favourable.^[14]

Noun

1. A person next in rank to the head of an organisation; a deputy.^[14]
2. (boxing) A second who attends the boxer before the fight and between rounds.^[14]
3. An assistant.^[14][1]
4. A second, the SI unit of time, one sixtieth of a minute.^[14][1]
5. A very short time, a moment: Espera un segundo.^[14][1]
6. (geometry) One sixtieth of a minute of arc.^[14]
7. (feminine) The double turn of a lock or key.^[14]
8. (feminine, often plural) A hidden intention: con segundas.^[14]
9. (feminine) The second string of some stringed instruments.^[14]
10. (feminine) second gear in a motor vehicle.^[14]

Word family

• milisegundo
• nanosegundo
• segundón
• segundero
• segundar

Related words

• secundario
• según
• seguir
• Latin secundus

Usage notes

Segundo de a bordo is the second-in-command, and a clock or pendulum is said to batir segundos as it ticks.^[14] Segundo is also a male given name.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 191
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. secundus
4. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. segundo
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. seguir
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. secundus
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. secundus
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. sequor
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 68
12. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. segundo
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 792
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. segundo
15. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. segundo
16. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 77
17. ^ Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo, p. 330
18. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 414
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. secundo
21. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 212
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 965