a. Her. [F. tiercé, -ée, f. tiercer to divide into three parts (13th c. in Godef.).] Said of a field divided en tierce, i.e., into three equal parts all of different tinctures: cf. prec. 9. Also anglicized as Tierced.
1725. Coats, Dict. Her., Tiercé,… a French Term importing that the Shield is divided into three equal Parts, when those Parts are of as many different Colours or Metals.
1864. Boutell, Her. Hist. & Pop., xxxii. (ed. 3), 471.
1883. Chambers’s Encycl., s.v., A shield may be tiercé in pale, in fess, in bend, in bend sinister, or in pall; all which, with other arrangements in tierce, are common in French heraldry.
