seconde French · revision 17246

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1636, Mersenne|origins=la sequor}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /sə.ɡɔ̃d/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''seconde''' ''f'' (plural secondes)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la-med|secunda|t=second]], short for “minūta secunda”, literally “the minute of the second rank”, the feminine of [[m|la|secundus|t=second]] with [[m|la-med|minūta|t=small part, minute]].^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)^(Larousse)^(Wiktionary) Littré explains that the ancients divided the hour and the degree into sixty “minutae” “small parts”, then each of these into sixty “minutae secundae” “second minutes”, which French shortened to [[minute]] and “seconde”.^(Littré 1873) “Secundus” is from [[m|la|sequor|t=to follow]].^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Mersenne, in his ''Harmonie universelle'' (1636), is the first to use it for the sixtieth part of a minute of time.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Pomey (1671) records it, and Miège (1677) uses it in geometry and astronomy for the sixtieth part of a minute of arc.^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi) Lamartine (1830) has it for a very short time, a moment, ''une seconde!'' “just a moment!” is modern.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) Since 1967 the second has been defined by the radiation of the caesium-133 atom.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1636 – A sixtieth of a minute, Mersenne.^(TLFi)

+ * 1677 – A sixtieth of a minute of arc, Miège.^(TLFi)

+ * 1830 – “A moment”, Lamartine.^(TLFi)

+ * 1967 – The atomic second.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|second]], a sixtieth of a minute: ''trois mètres par seconde''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # A very short time, a [[m|en|moment]]: ''une seconde, j'arrive''.^(Larousse)^(Le Robert)

+ # ''(geometry)'' A sixtieth of a minute of arc.^(Larousse)^(Le Robert)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[second]]

+ * [[minute]]

+ * [[secondaire]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Seconde'' is also the feminine of [[second]] used as a noun: second class on a train, second gear, the ''classe de seconde'' at a French ''lycée'', and in music the interval of a second.^(Larousse)^(Littré 1873)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}