a. and sb. 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 sb., f. tertius third: see -AN. Cf. OF. tierçain(e adj. (13th c. in Godef.), tierçaine sb. 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 sb. 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. trans. 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. 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. sb. 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. 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 iiii11 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 (yt 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 (now 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. Anna 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. 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 Tertianship (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.
