second

From Middle English secunde, second, secound, secund, borrowed from Old French second, seond, from Latin secundus (“following, next in order”), from root of sequor (“I follow”), from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to follow”). Partially displaced native other.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛkənd/
• (US) enPR: sĕʹkənd, IPA^(key): /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/, /ˈsɛk.(ə)nt/

• Audio - 'a second' (UK)

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• Audio (US)

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• Hyphenation: sec‧ond

second (not comparable)

1. Number-two; following after the first one with nothing between them. The ordinal number corresponding to the cardinal number two.

   He lives on Second Street.

   The second volume in "The Lord of the Rings" series is called "The Two Towers".

   You take the first one, and I'll have the second.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess‎:

     The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. […] The second note, the high alarum, not so familiar and always important since it indicates the paramount sin in Man's private calendar, took most of them by surprise although they had been well prepared.

2. Next to the first in value, power, excellence, dignity, or rank; secondary; subordinate; inferior.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Landor, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     May the day when we become the second people upon earth […] be the day of our utter extirpation.

3. Being of the same kind as one that has preceded; another.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Shakespeare, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel!

• (number-two): 2nd, 2d, IInd; (in names of monarchs and popes) II

• other
• (nonstandard): twoth

second (not comparable)

1. (with superlative) After the first; at the second rank.

   Saturn is the second largest planet.

2. After the first occurrence but before the third.

   He is batting second today.

second (plural seconds)

1. One that is number two in a series.
2. One that is next in rank, quality, precedence, position, status, or authority.
3. The place that is next below or after first in a race or contest.
4. (usually in the plural) A manufactured item that, though still usable, fails to meet quality control standards.

   They were discounted because they contained blemishes, nicks or were otherwise factory seconds.

5. (usually in the plural) An additional helping of food.

   That was good barbecue. I hope I can get seconds.

6. A chance or attempt to achieve what should have been done the first time, usually indicating success this time around. (See second-guess.)
   • 2003, Sheila Ryan Wallace, The Sea Captain and His Ladies‎, page 22:

     The policeman smiled, his eyes twinkling. "Now if you'll follow me, I'll escort you to the Victoria."
     "Oh, there's no need of that. If you'll just point me in the right direction..."
     That's what got you in trouble the first time around. You don't need a second.

   • 2009, Paulette Jiles, Stormy Weather‎, page 37:

     Smoky Joe ran against a Houston horse named Cherokee Chief.
     “Don't hit him,” Jeanine said to the jockey. “Maybe once. But you don't get a second.”

   • 2011, Karen Miller, The Innocent Mage‎:

     I'll have one chance to show them that's no longer true. One chance ... and if I stumble, I'll not get a second.

7. (music) The interval between two adjacent notes in a diatonic scale (either or both of them may be raised or lowered from the basic scale via any type of accidental).
8. The second gear of an engine.
9. (baseball) Second base.
10. The agent of a party to an honour dispute whose role was to try to resolve the dispute or to make the necessary arrangements for a duel.[1]
11. A Cub Scout appointed to assist the sixer.
    • 1995, Boy Scouts of Canada. National Council, The Cub Book

      Many packs have a sixer's council where the sixers, and sometimes the seconds, meet with Akela and some of the other leaders.

• (music): secundal (adj.)

second (third-person singular simple present seconds, present participle seconding, simple past and past participle seconded)

1. (transitive) To agree as a second person to (a proposal), usually to reach a necessary quorum of two. (See under #Etymology 3 for translations.)

   I second the motion.

2. To follow in the next place; to succeed.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Fuller, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     In the method of nature, a low valley is immediately seconded with an ambitious hill.

   • (Can we date this quote?), South, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Sin is seconded with sin.

3. (climbing) To climb after a lead climber.

From Middle English secunde, seconde, borrowed from Old French seconde, from Medieval Latin secunda, short for secunda pars minuta (“second diminished part (of the hour)”).

• (SI unit of time): (abbreviations) s, sec; (symbols) s (SI and non-scientific usage), sec (in non-scientific usage only)
• (unit of angle): (abbreviations) arcsec, "

• enPR: sĕʹkənd, IPA^(key): /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/, /ˈsɛk.(ə)nt/

• Audio (US)

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• Hyphenation: sec‧ond

second (plural seconds)

A light flashing approximately once per second

1. One-sixtieth of a minute; the SI unit of time, defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of caesium-133 in a ground state at a temperature of absolute zero and at rest.
2. A unit of angle equal to one-sixtieth of a minute of arc or one part in 3600 of a degree.
3. (informal) A short, indeterminate amount of time.

   I'll be there in a second.

• (unit of angle): second of arc, arcsecond
• (short, indeterminate amount of time): (colloquial) sec
• Appendix:Words used as placeholders to count seconds

• leap second
• millisecond
• nanosecond

From Middle French seconder, from Latin secundō (“assist, make favorable”).

Transfer temporarily

• enPR: səkŏnd', IPA^(key): /səˈkɒnd/
• Rhymes: -ɒnd
• Hyphenation: sec‧ond

Assist, Agree

• enPR: sĕʹkənd, IPA^(key): /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/, /ˈsɛk.(ə)nt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sec‧ond

second (third-person singular simple present seconds, present participle seconding, simple past and past participle seconded)

1. (transitive, Britain) To transfer temporarily to alternative employment.
   • 1998, Paul Leonard, chapter 9, in Dreamstone Moon:

     Daniel had still been surprised, however, to find the lab area deserted, all the scientists apparently seconded by Cleomides's military friends.

2. (transitive) To assist or support; to back.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Shakespeare, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     We have supplies to second our attempt.

   • (Can we date this quote?), Alexander Pope, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     In human works though laboured on with pain, / A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain; / In God's, one single can its end produce, / Yet serves to second too some other use.

3. (transitive) To agree as a second person to (a proposal), usually to reach a necessary quorum of two. (This may come from the English adjective above.)

   I second the motion.

• secondment
• secondee

second (plural seconds)

1. One who supports another in a contest or combat, such as a dueller's assistant.
   • 1820, Pierce Egan, Sporting Anecdotes, page 414:

     The dogs however parted, and after a little handling by their seconds immediately returned to the charge

   • 1973, Frank Brady, Bobby Fischer: Profile of a Prodigy, page 201:

     They find ways to take advice from their seconds or they arrange the schedule against you as they did to me in the finals of the 1962 World Tournament

   • 1992, International Courts for the Twenty-First Century, page 10:

     Vaguely reminiscent of the use of "seconds" among duelists, this provision required that the two hostile nations stop threatening each other and, instead, to let two appointed countries (their "seconds") try and solve their difficulties

   • 2009, David Brakke, Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early ...:

     Theodore's practice is described as a model for the housemasters and their seconds

2. One who supports or seconds a motion, or the act itself, as required in certain meetings to pass judgement etc.

   If we want the motion to pass, we will need a second.

3. (obsolete) Aid; assistance; help.
   • (Can we date this quote?), J. Fletcher, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Give second, and my love / Is everlasting thine.

second on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• arcsecond on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• second on Wikipedia.Wikipedia (time)
• second (parliamentary procedure) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• second-hand goods on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• CODENs, coends, condes, consed, decons, sconed

• (abbreviation) 2^d, 2^e

From Old French secunt, second, segont, borrowed as a semi-learned term from Latin secundus (“second”); related to sequi (“follow”). Doublet of son (“bran”), which was inherited.

• IPA^(key): /sə.ɡɔ̃/

• audio

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second (feminine singular seconde, masculine plural seconds, feminine plural secondes)

1. second

   « Chiquita! Chiquita! » À la seconde appellation, une fillette maigre et hâve (...) s'avança vers Agostin. (Gautier, Fracasse, 1863)

   une seconde possibilité — a second possibility, another possibility

• (ordinal): deuxième

Second is usually used one when there are only two clear options. In all other situations, i.e. when there are more options, deuxième is commonly used.

second m (plural seconds)

1. assistant, first mate

   Je m'attachai aux pas de miss Harriet et lui servis de second dans le classement du linge. (Gobineau, Pléiades, 1874)

• adjoint, aide, assistant

• secondaire
• seconde
• seconder

• (ordinals (1–10)): premier, deuxième (or second), troisième, quatrième, cinquième, sixième, septième, huitième, neuvième, dixième
• (ordinals (11–20)): onzième, douzième, treizième, quatorzième, quinzième, seizième, dix-septième, dix-huitième, dix-neuvième, vingtième

• “second” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• “second” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• cédons, condés

second

1. Alternative form of secunde (“after the first”)

second

1. Alternative form of secunde (“after the first”)

Borrowed from Latin secundus.

second m (oblique and nominative feminine singular seconde)

1. (ordinal) second

• Middle English: secunde
  • English: second
  • Scots: seicont
• French: second