tertian, a. and n.
(ˈtɜːʃən)
Forms: 4 tertiane, 4–6 -cian(e, -cyan, 6 -cyen, -san, (tarcian), 8 tercion, 6– tertian.
[ME. in fever terciane, or terciane, ad. L. febris tertiāna, also tertiāna n., f. tertius third: see -an. Cf. OF. tier{cced}ain(e adj. (13th c. in Godef.), tier{cced}aine n. a fever (12th c.).]
A. adj.
1. Path. Of a fever or ague: Characterized by the occurrence of a paroxysm every third (i.e. every alternate) day.
In early use following the n. as in F.; cf. quotidian.
| c 1386 Chaucer Nun's Pr. T. 139 Ye shul haue a ffeuere terciane Or an Agu. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. xxxix. (Bodl. MS.), A Feuere Terciane..greueþ fro þe þrid daye to the þrid and namelich aboute þe þrid houre. 1625 Hart Anat. Ur. i. v. 48 During her husbands sicknesse, being a long and tedious, first Tertian, then double Tertian feauer. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 37 To cure Quotidian, Tertian and Quartan Agues. 1834 J. Forbes Laennec's Dis. Chest (ed. 4) 318 Sometimes it is attended at the beginning by chills, which return with the tertian, double tertian, or quotidian type. |
† 2. Third in order. Obs.
| 1592 W. Wyrley Armorie, Capitall de Buz 123 They made three battels and a reregard, The first had Glesquine,..The Earle of Aucer ruld the second ward, Th'archpriest did their tertian battell hold. |
3. Mus. Applied to the mean-tone temperament (in which the major thirds are perfectly in tune).
| 1875 A. J. Ellis Helmholtz's Sensat. Tone 649 Mean⁓tone, Mesotonic or Tertian Temperament. |
4. Tertian Father: in the Society of Jesus, a member of the order who is passing through the last of the three stages of probation, which prepares him for admission to the final vows.
| 1855 [implied in tertianship]. 1876 J. Morris in J. H. Pollen Life vii. (1896) 181 Three different communities under one Rector—the novices, scholastics, and Tertian Fathers. |
B. n.
1. Short for tertian ague or fever.
double tertian, one in which there are two sets of paroxysms, each recurring every third (i.e. alternate) day.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. xii. 80 Mi name is feuere, on þe ferþe day I am a-þrest euere;..men haue I tweyne, Þat on is called cotidian.., Tercian þat oþer, trewe drinkeres boþe! 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. (Rolls) 291 He fel in a tercian, that continued many dayes. 1565 Blundevil Horsemanship iv. v. (1580) 4 Manie other speciall kinds, as Quotidians, Tertians, Quartanes. 1651 Wittie Primrose's Pop. Err. iii. 151 Lying sick of a Tertian. 1844 Lever T. Burke lxxiii, The tertian of Egypt, so fatal among the French troops, now numbered him among its victims. |
† 2. An obsolete liquid measure for wine, oil, etc., the third of a tun, i.e. 84 wine gallons (= 70 imperial gallons); also, a large cask of this capacity; a puncheon. See also quot. 1542. Obs.
| 1423 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 256/1 The Terciane iiiixx iiii galons. 1531–2 Act 23 Hen. VIII, c. 7 Euery butt of Malmesey shuld conteyne cxxvi galons,..euery tarcian or poncheon lxxxiiii galons. 1542 Recorde Gr. Artes (1575) 206 Of wine and oyle the Tertian holdeth 84 Gallons... But..there bee other kindes of Tertians: for there be Tertians (y{supt} is to saye) Thirdles of Pypes, of Hoggesheaddes, and Barrels. 1749 Phil. Trans. XLVI. 55 It is declared that the Tun of Wine, Oil, and Honey, should contain..252 Gallons; the Pipe or Butt 126; the Tertian 84. |
3. In Scottish Universities (latterly only at Aberdeen), a student in his third year. Also attrib.
| 1857 Clerk Maxwell in Life x. (1882) 296 Where Tertian and Semi are hot in dispute And the voice of the Magistrand never is mute. 1894 W. L. Low D. Thomson iv. 83 During my Tertian year we were examined by him only once. 1895 A. M. Stoddart J. S. Blackie I. 228 He followed the Natural Philosophy and Moral Philosophy courses as a tertian and a magistrand. |
4. A mixture stop on an organ, consisting of a tierce and larigot combined.
| 1876 J. Hiles Catech. Organ x. (1878) 77. 1898 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms, Tertian, an organ stop composed of two ranks of pipes, sounding a major third and fifth of the foundation pipes, in the third octave above; a Tierce and Larigot on one slider. |
5. Geom. A curve of the third order, a cubic. rare.
| 1891 in Cent. Dict. |
6. Short for Tertian Father: see A. 4.
Hence ˈtertianship (R.C. Ch.), the position of being a Tertian Father (see A. 4).
| 1855 R. Boyle B. v. Wiseman 56 After he has been associated with the Society [of Jesus] for fifteen or twenty years, he is required to retire into, what is technically called, a tertianship, or a third year's probation. 1892 J. H. Pollen Acts Eng. Martyrs 358 He was Minister of the Tertianship at Ghent and then Prefect and Confessor at St. Omers. |