tercero

Forms

tercero (masculine singular before a noun tercer, feminine tercera, masculine plural terceros, feminine plural terceras)^[1] Old Spanish wrote terzero, terçero and tercero, with the short forms terçer and tercer.^[2][3] A rare terciero is recorded in 1272, and the Fuero de Usagre has tecer.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tertiārius (“containing a third part”).^[5][3][6][1] The Latin adjective is formed from tertius (“third”) and the suffix -ārius, and in classical Latin it meant “containing one third”, as of an alloy of one part of one metal to two of another.^[7][8] Corominas notes that this derivative became the general ordinal in Castilian and Portuguese, while Catalan and Occitan used it beside the older ordinal.^[3]

The same Latin word is Portuguese terceiro, Galician terceiro, Asturian terceru, Catalan tercer, Old Occitan tersier and Old French tercier.^[9][1][10] The Latin ordinal goes back to Proto-Italic *tritios, from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥tyós, the ordinal of *tréyes (“three”), and is related to Ancient Greek τρίτος (trítos, “third”).^[1]

Spanish also took the Latin adjective a second time as the learned terciario.^[1][10] Corominas traces trechel, a kind of spring wheat recorded in 1513, to Mozarabic *tercher, which corresponds to the Castilian word.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to about 950, in the Glosas Emilianenses, where it is spelt terzero.^[3][2] A charter of 978 from Covarrubias has la tercera parte “the third part”, and Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of el tercero grado del signo de aries “the third degree of the sign of Aries”.^[2][11] The first sense is the ordinal “third”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

By 1611 Covarrubias records, beside the ordinal, the sense “one who mediates between two people to reconcile them”, and notes that tercero and tercera sometimes meant a procurer or procuress.^[12] Cervantes uses the feminine in this way, of a woman who had been tercera en sus amores “go-between in their love affair”.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades added the member of a Third Order, the lay branch of the Franciscans, Dominicans and Carmelites.^[14]

Terreros recorded the official who collected the tithes and kept them until they were shared out.^[15] The Academy's dictionary of 1843 has tercero en discordia, the third arbitrator named when two others disagree, and the feminine nouns for the musical third, a guitar string and a run of three cards.^[16] Alemany in 1917 adds the person who is not one of the parties to a deal, now the usual legal sense (seguro a terceros), and the sixtieth part of a second of arc.^[17][5] The current dictionary also has tercera for the third gear of a vehicle.^[5]

Regional senses include the night watchman of a hospital in Chile, and in Astorga the third quarter of an hour.^[18][19][20] In the old cant of the germanía it was the galley slave of the third bench.^[21]

Timeline

• c. 950 – the Glosas Emilianenses have terzero.^[3][2]
• 978 – a charter from Covarrubias has la tercera parte.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the ordinal in astrology.^[11]
• 1272 – the rare form terciero is recorded.^[3]
• 1520 – the first record from the Americas, in Cuba, in the sense “third party”.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives the senses “mediator” and “procurer”.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades adds the member of a Third Order.^[14]
• 1843 – the Academy records tercero en discordia and the musical third.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin tertiarius for the first time.^[23]

Meanings

Adjective

1. third: coming after the second in a series: Vivo en el tercer piso.^[5][1]
2. Mediating between two or more people; mostly as a noun.^[5]
3. Not one of the people or things directly involved in a matter; as a noun, a third party in law.^[5][1]
4. Being one of three equal parts into which a whole is divided: la tercera parte.^[5]
5. Belonging to a Third Order of the Franciscans, Dominicans or Carmelites; as a noun, a tertiary.^[5]

Noun

1. (masculine and feminine) A go-between in a love affair, a procurer.^[5][24]
2. (historical) The official who collected and kept the tithes (diezmos) until they were shared out.^[5]
3. (geometry, obsolete) Each of the sixty parts of a second of arc.^[5]
4. (feminine) Third gear of a vehicle; also the third string of some instruments, and in music the interval of a third.^[5]
5. (Chile) A night watchman in a hospital.^[18][19]

Word family

• tercería
• tercerear
• tercerilla

Related words

• tercera
• tercio
• tres
• terciario
• Latin tertius
• Portuguese terceiro

Usage notes

Before a masculine singular noun the form is tercer: el tercer día, but el día tercero.^[1][15] Set phrases include tercero en discordia “a mediator in a dispute” and a la tercera va la vencida “third time lucky”.^[25][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. tercero
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 624
4. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. s.v. tercero
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. tercero
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tres
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 775
11. ^ a b 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. tercero
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1325
13. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 1080
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 252
15. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 613
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 695
17. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1574
18. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 361
19. ^ a b Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 444
20. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. tercero
21. ^ Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 201
22. ^ 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. tercero
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1018
24. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tercero
25. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. tercero