Now Hist. Also 7 tercia. [app. an altered form of TERCIO, TERTIO, due to obscurity of final vowel.] A division of infantry: see quot. 1870; a TERCIO; a regiment; also transf.
1630. B. Jonson, New Inn, III. i. ’Twill be desired Only, the expressions were a little more Spanish;… To call them tertias—tertia of the kitchen, Tertia of the cellar, tertia of the chamber, And tertia of the stables.
1644. R. Symonds, Diary Civ. War (Camden), 159. When the King’s army was in Cornwall, the infantry was divided into three Tertias, and every tertia should consist of three brigades. Ibid., 167. Lord Astleys Tertia of foot made the approaches.
1670. Dryden, 2nd Pt. Conq. Granada, I. i. That tertia of Italians did you guide.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, ii.
1870. C. R. Markham, Life Ld. Fairfax, vii. 61. A foot regiment was … formed in solid square battalions ten deep, called tertias, the pikes in the centre, and the musketeers on either flank.
