terço

Forms

terço m (plural terços)^[1] Thirteenth-century charters write the feminine terça, tersa and terza, and Machado has terzo in 1329.^[2] Houaiss records teerço in the 15th century.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tertius (“third”), written Old Galician-Portuguese terço in the oldest texts.^[3][4][1][5] Aurélio calls it the popular outcome of the Latin word, and Houaiss compares the learned form tércio.^[6][3]

The same Latin word is Galician terzo, Spanish tercio, French tiers and Italian terzo.^[7][1][8]

The Latin ordinal belongs to trēs (“three”); the OLD takes it for an older Proto-Italic *tritios.^[9] Wiktionary traces it through that form to Proto-Indo-European *tr̥tyós, the ordinal of *tréyes (“three”), and compares Ancient Greek τρίτος (trítos) and Proto-Germanic *þridjô.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Galician-Portuguese charters have the feminine from the 1250s: one of 1255 speaks of toda sua dereytura da terça “all his right to the third part”, and one of 1262 has a terça parte “the third part”.^[2] The masculine noun is in the Cantigas de Santa Maria: non quis en mais do terço “he wanted no more than a third of it”.^[2] Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[3]

Semantic evolution

As an ordinal terço “third” gave way to terceiro;^[3][6][5] Houaiss marks it as rare, and it survives in the feminine of terça-feira “Tuesday”.^[3][6][5] The fraction, “a third part”, is the main sense from the first records, and medieval donations to monasteries often dispose of the terço or terça of an inheritance for the good of the giver's soul.^[2][10]

Bluteau describes the terço do rosário, each of the three parts of the rosary of five Our Fathers and fifty Hail Marys, and the military terço, a body of troops he compares to the Roman legion and the modern regiment.^[11] Houaiss places the military terço in the Portuguese and Spanish armies of the 16th and 17th centuries.^[3] Morais adds the third of the course in jousting and the terços of a vault, a sword or a column.^[12] Later senses include the central part of a yard on a ship, a sharecropping arrangement in which the owner receives a third of the harvest, and in Rio Grande do Sul a leather bag for provisions.^[3][13]

The rosary sense passed into Konkani as तेर्स (ters).^[1]

Timeline

• 1262 – a terça parte in a charter.^[2]
• 13th century, second half – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use terço for a third part.^[2]
• 15th century – the spelling teerço.^[3]
• 1542 – terços in a private letter.^[14]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses it as “the third part”.^[15]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the terço of the rosary and the military terço.^[11]
• 1755 – Folqman gives the military sense, rendered as Latin legio.^[16]
• 1789 – Morais records the thirds of a vault, a sword and a column.^[12]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira quotes Fernão Mendes Pinto's Peregrinação for quasi de hum terço de largo “almost a third (of a league) wide”.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (rare) third, the same as terceiro; used today in the feminine of terça-feira.^[3][6]
2. Being a third of something: a terça parte.^[3][18][1]

Noun

1. A third, each of three equal parts of a whole: doou um terço das terras.^[3][18][1]
2. (Catholicism) A third of the rosary, five decades of beads, and the prayers said on it; the beads themselves.^[3][18][1]
3. (architecture) The lower or upper third of the shaft of a column.^[3][19]
4. The third of a sword nearest the hilt.^[18][20]
5. (nautical) The central part of a yard.^[3][18]
6. (agriculture) A form of sharecropping in which the owner receives a third of the yield.^[3][21]
7. (Rio Grande do Sul) A leather bag for provisions on a journey.^[3][13]
8. (historical, military) A tercio, a body of troops of the 16th and 17th centuries corresponding to a modern regiment.^[3][1]

Word family

• terçado

Related words

• terça
• terceiro
• tércio
• terçar
• três
• Latin tertius
• Galician terzo
• Spanish tercio

Usage notes

The noun is pronounced with a closed /e/ in the singular and the plural (terços), unlike the forms of the verb terçar; it is also distinct from the adjective terso “clean, pure”.^[6][20]

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 e f Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. terço
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. terço
4. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. terço
5. ^ a b c Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. terço
6. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. terço
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8679
8. ^ 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. tercio
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. tertius
10. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 377
11. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. terço
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 453
13. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. terço
14. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. terço
15. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. terço
16. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. terço
17. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 707
18. ^ a b c d e Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. terço
19. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. terço
20. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. terço
21. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. terço