a. and sb. Also 6 tercyary. [f. L. tertiāri-us of the third part or rank, f. tertius third: see -ARY1 So F. tertiaire.]
A. adj. 1. Of, in, or belonging to the third order, rank, degree, class, or category; third.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Tertiary,… of, or belonging to the third, or third sort, tertian.
1831. Brewster, Optics, ix. 84. When one prism of a different angle is thus made to correct the dispersion of another prism, a tertiary spectrum is produced.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., s.v., A tertiary peduncle is the second degree of ramification of a compound peduncle, or a bough of the branch which gives off the peduncle.
1865. Ruskin, Sesame, i. § 5. I venture to assume that you will admit duty as at least a secondary or tertiary motive.
1871. Earle, Philol. Eng. Tongue, § 428. The adverb is the tertiary or third presentive word.
b. Chem. Applied to the substitution ammonias formed by the replacement of all three hydrogen atoms by an alcohol or acid radical.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., III. 237. The tertiary amides are readily prepared from such silver salts of the secondary amides. Ibid. (1862), 433. Tertiary Monamides.—In these bodies the 3 atoms of hydrogen in ammonia are displaced by a corresponding number of radicles, one of which at least must be of an electro-negative character.
2. Geol. Forming a third series in point of origin or age. † a. Applied by early geologists to mountains of the most recent formation. b. In modern geology, Of or pertaining to the third series of stratified formations: formerly including all those above the chalk; now restricted to the strata from the Eocene to the Pliocene, both inclusive. Also called CAINOZOIC.
[G. Arduino, Lett., in Nuova Raccolta d’opusc. scient., VI. 159 (1760). Monti … primitivi o primari … secondari … e terziari, li monti e colli del terzo ordine, che sta a ridosso del secondo e talvolta anche del primo.]
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., I. x. 78. He [Pallas] maintained, that in addition to these primordial mountains, there were others of a more recent origin. These he called secondary and tertiary.
[18[?]. Cuvier & Brongn., Descr. Geol. Env. Paris (1822), 9. Terrains tertiaires.]
a. 1812. Kirwan (Webster, 1828). Tertiary mountains are such as result from the ruins of other mountains promiscuously heaped together.
1822. Conybeare & Phillips, Geol. Eng. & W., 1 Tertiary Rocks. Comprising the Formations above the Chalk.
1824–5. D. Olmsted, Geol. N. Carolina (Webster). Tertiary formation, a series of horizontal strata, more recent than chalk beds…. It comprehends the alluvial formation … and the diluvial formation.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 49. Arduino, in his memoirs on the mountains of Paduz, Vicenza, and Verona, first recognized the distinction between primary, secondary, and tertiary rocks. Ibid. (1833), III. p. vii. A large collection of tertiary shells.
1862. McCosh, Supernatural, II. ii. § 2. 183. Nor does Man descend from the mammals which preceded him in the tertiary age.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man., i. 3. Previously to the year 1833,… the strata called Tertiary had been divided by geologists into Lower, Middle, and Upper.
3. Painting. Applied to a color formed by the mixture of two secondary colors.
1848. Wornum, in Lect. Paint., 211, note. Although there are but three primitive colours, painters have nine. These are—yellow, red, blue;… orange, purple, green, which are secondary;… russet, olive, citrine, which are tertiary, being compounds of the secondaries.
4. Path. Of or belonging to the third or last stage of syphilis.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 404. In tertiary syphilis, including in the term all cases of syphilitic bone, visceral, or nervous disease, the remedy is really of inestimable value.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 668. It has … been considered inappropriate in this article to introduce the terms ‘secondary’ and ‘tertiary’ as applicable to the incidence of the phenomena of cerebral syphilis.
5. R. C. Ch. Of or belonging to the Third Order in certain religious fraternities: see B. 1.
A Third Order, of lay members not subject to the strict rule of the regulars, but retaining the secular life, was originated by St. Francis of Assisi, and is an established institution among the Franciscans, Dominicans, and others. (See Catholic Dict.)
1891. R. H. Busk, in N. & Q., 7th Ser. XI. 289/2. The Franciscans, who loved [Dante], and in whose tertiary habit he was shrouded in the supreme hour.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 1 Sept., 2/3. The Tertiary Sister was discharged yesterday.
1903. Daily Chron., 2 Sept., 5/6. The murderer was a tertiary lay brother of the Dominican order.
6. Ornith. Applied to certain feathers of the wing: see B. 3. Cf. TERTIAL.
1858. J. Wilson, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 8), XVI. 735/1. The tertials or tertiary feathers are derived from the humerus or arm-bone.
B. sb. 1. R. C. Ch. A member of the Third Order of certain religious fraternities: see A. 5.
a. 1500. Image Ipocr., IV. 213, in Skelton’s Wks. (1843), II. 441/2. Some be Tercyaris, And some be of St. Marys.
1820. Southey, Wesley, II. 565. It may … deserve to be recognized as an auxiliary institution, its ministers being analogous to the regulars, and its members to the tertiaries and various confraternities of the Romish Church.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 15 July, 3/3. The late Marquis [of Ripon], besides being a fervent Tertiary of St. Francis, was a friend in need to the Franciscan Order.
2. Geol. A stratum or formation belonging to the Tertiary system: see A. 2.
1851. Woodward, Mollusca, I. 45. In the miocene tertiaries of Asia Minor.
1885. Lyell’s Elem. Geol., ix. (ed. 4), 110. The whole of the Tertiaries were at first confounded with the superficial alluviums of Europe.
3. Ornith. (pl.) The quill- or flight-feathers that grow upon the humerus in the wing of a bird.
1834. Mudie, Feathered Tribes Brit. Isles (1841), I. 10. The tertiaries or third quills of the wings.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 36. The Tertiaries … are, properly, the remiges that grow upon the upper arm. [Cf. TERTIAL.]
4. Path. (pl.) Tertiary syphilitic symptoms: see A. 4.
1897 J. Hutchinson in Arch. Surg., VIII. 218. Those who remain well and never present tertiaries.
5. Painting. A tertiary color: see A. 3.
1854. Fairholt, Dict. Terms Art, s.v. Secondary Colours, When two secondaries are mixed together … they cannot neutralise each other, but only form half-tones or tertiaries.
1897. Daily News, 20 May, 7/4. Mr. Rhead is fortunate in handling effectively the most brilliant of positive colours as well as the quieter tertiaries.
