# second
## English
### Etymology 1

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”). Doublet of secund and secundo. Displaced native twoth and partially displaced native other (from Old English ōþer (“other; next; second”)).

#### Alternative forms

* (number-two): 2nd, 2ⁿᵈ, 2d, 2ᵈ, IInd
* (number-two): II, II. (in the names of monarchs and popes)

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈsɛkənd/
* (US) enPR: sĕʹkənd, IPA: /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/, /ˈsɛk.(ə)nt/
* (Canada) IPA: /ˈsɛkɪnd/
* Audio (UK); “a second”:(file)
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛkənd
* Hyphenation: sec‧ond

#### Adjective

second (not comparable)
* 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, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 249: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.
* Next to the first in value, power, excellence, dignity, or rank; secondary; subordinate; inferior.
** 1824, Walter Savage Landor, “Conversation I. Richard I and the Abbot of Boxley.”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume I, London: […] Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 6:May the day when we become the second people upon earth […] be the day of our utter extirpation!
* Being of the same kind as one that has preceded; another.
    Residents of Texas prepared for Hurricane Harvey, which would in some ways turn out to become the second Hurricane Katrina.
** c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 180, column 2:A Daniel ſtill ſay I, a ſecond Daniel, […]

##### Synonyms

* other

##### Derived terms

* at second hand
* beard-second
* come off second best
* court of second instance
* error of the second kind
* have second thoughts
* murder in the second degree
* Newton's second law
* on second thought
* on second thoughts
* party of the second part
* perpetual motion machine of the second kind
* play second fiddle
* second act
* second amendment
* secondary
* second aunt
* second banana
* second base
* second baseman
* second best
* secondborn
* second brain
* second breakfast
* second chance
* second childhood
* second city
* second class
* second coming
* second conditional
* second contact
* second cosmic velocity
* second-countable
* second countable
* second cousin
* second cranial nerve
* second day cover
* second death
* second-degree
* second derivative
* second distance
* second division
* second down
* second-drawer
* second estate
* second family
* second fiddle
* second five-eighth
* second flour
* second freedom rights
* second from last
* second gas effect
* second-generation
* second gentleman
* second girl
* second grade
* second grader
* second-growth forest
* second-guarder
* second-guess
* second guesser
* second half
* second-hand
* secondhanded
* second-harmonic generation
* second helping
* second home
* second impact syndrome
* second imperative (Latin grammar)
* second in command
* second-in-command
* second inversion
* second island chain
* second joint
* second lady
* second language
* second last
* second-last
* second leg
* second-level domain
* second lieutenant
* second-line
* second line
* secondly
* secondman, second man
* second messenger
* second-mile service
* second moment of area
* second moment of inertia
* secondmost
* second most
* second mourning
* second name
* second nature
* secondness
* second new ball
* second normal form
* second officer
* second opinion
* second-order
* second order stream
* second palatalization
* second party
* second person
* second position
* second preimage attack
* second puberty
* second-rate
* second reading
* second-round effect
* second screen
* second serve
* second service
* second session
* second sheet
* second shift
* second sight
* second-sighted
* second slip
* second sound
* second source
* Secondspace
* second-storey man
* second string
* second-system effect
* second-system syndrome
* second team
* second thought
* second thoughts
* second to last
* second to none
* second Tuesday of the week
* second uncle
* second unit
* second violin
* second violinist
* second wave
* second wind
* second year
* second yellow card
* Stirling number of the second kind

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Adverb

second (not comparable)
* (with superlative) After the first; at the second rank.
    Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system.
* After the first occurrence but before the third.
    He is batting second today.

##### Translations
#### Noun

second (plural seconds)
* Something that is number two in a series.
* Something that is next in rank, quality, precedence, position, status, or authority.
* The place that is next below or after first in a race or contest.
* (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.
* (usually in the plural) An additional helping of food.
    That was good barbecue. I hope I can get seconds.
* 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.
* (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).
* The second gear of an engine.
* (baseball) Second base.
* 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.
* A Cub Scout appointed to assist the sixer.
    Synonym: seconder
** 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.
* (informal) A second-class honours degree.
** 2004, William H. Cropper, Great Physicists, page 454:[Stephen Hawking] […] would go to Cambridge, he said, if they gave him a first, and stay at Oxford if they gave him a second. He got a first.

##### Derived terms

* cosmetic second
* diminished second
* factory second
* major second
* minor second
* sloppy seconds
* this second

##### Related terms

* (music): secundal (adj.)

##### Translations
#### Verb

second (third-person singular simple present seconds, present participle seconding, simple past and past participle seconded)
* (Should we move, merge or split this sense?) (transitive) To agree as a second person to (a proposal), usually to reach a necessary quorum of two. (See etymology 3 for translations.)
    I second the motion.
** 2017, Critics Pick the TV Shows That Get Mental Health Right — IndieWire Survey‎:Though seconding (or fifthing) the praise for “BoJack Horseman” and “In Treatment,” I think I’ll use the majority of my space to discuss “You’re the Worst.”
* To follow in the next place; to succeed.
** 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):In the method of nature, a low valley is immediately seconded with an ambitious hill.
** 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:Sin is usually seconded with sin.
* (climbing) To climb after a lead climber.

##### Derived terms

* secondable

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

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)”).

#### Alternative forms

* (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, "

#### Pronunciation

* enPR: sĕʹkənd, IPA: /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/
* (US) IPA: /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/, /ˈsɛk.(ə)nt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛkənd
* Hyphenation: sec‧ond

#### Noun

second (plural seconds)
* A unit of time historically and commonly defined as a sixtieth of a minute which the International System of Units more precisely defines 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.
* A unit of angle equal to one-sixtieth of a minute of arc or one part in 3600 of a degree.
    Synonyms: arcsecond, second of arc
* (informal) A short, indeterminate amount of time.
    Synonyms: instant, jiffy, sec; see also Thesaurus:moment
    I'll be there in a second.
** 2020, L. William Zahner, “Corrosion Characteristics”, in Aluminum Surfaces: a Guide to Alloys, Finishes, Fabrication and Maintenance in Architecture and Art, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 287:Exposure of aluminum to the air causes a near instantaneous oxide. So rapid is the oxidation that it is safe to say you never see aluminum that has no oxide on its surface... The initial exposure of aluminum, regardless of alloy, will form a thin oxide film on the surface the second it is exposed.

##### Coordinate terms

* millennium
* century
* decade
* year
* month
* week
* day
* hour
* minute
* moment
* second
* millisecond
* microsecond
* nanosecond
* picosecond
* femtosecond
* attosecond
* zeptosecond
* yoctosecond

##### Derived terms

* attosecond
* centimeter-gram-second
* centisecond
* cumec
* cusec
* cycle per second
* decasecond
* decisecond
* dying seconds
* ephemeris second
* every second
* exasecond
* femtosecond
* five-second rule
* foot per second
* foot-pound-second
* frame per second
* gigasecond
* hectosecond
* hot second
* intersecond
* joule-second
* just a second
* kilosecond
* leap second
* light second
* lumen second
* megasecond
* meter-kilogram-second
* meter-tonne-second
* metre per second
* microsecond
* millisecond
* multisecond
* nanosecond
* New York second
* ohnosecond
* parallax second
* petasecond
* picosecond
* quectosecond
* ronnasecond
* rontosecond
* Saybolt universal second
* second hand
* split-second, split second
* subsecond
* ten-second car
* ten-second rule
* terasecond
* thirty-second rest
* three-second rule, three seconds rule
* two-second rule
* two seconds to black
* watt-second
* yoctosecond
* yottasecond
* zeptosecond
* zettasecond
* μsecond

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

##### See also

* Appendix:Words used as placeholders to count seconds

### Etymology 3

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

#### Pronunciation
##### Transfer temporarily

* enPR: səkŏnd', (UK) IPA: /səˈkɒnd/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /səˈkɑnd/
* Rhymes: (UK) -ɒnd, (General American) -ɑnd
* Hyphenation: sec‧ond

##### Assist, Agree

* enPR: sĕʹkənd, IPA: /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/, /ˈsɛk.(ə)nt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛkənd
* Hyphenation: sec‧ond

#### Verb

second (third-person singular simple present seconds, present participle seconding, simple past and past participle seconded)
* (transitive, UK) To transfer temporarily to alternative employment.
    Synonym: detail
    The army officer was seconded while he held civil office.
** 1961 October, “Talking of Trains: Last of the M.S.W.J.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 585–586:Things changed quickly from 1892 when Sam Fay was seconded from the L.S.W.R. as General Manager & Secretary.
** 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.
* (transitive) To assist or support; to back.
** c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 91, column 1:Wee haue Supplyes, to ſecond our Attempt: […]
** 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle I, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 6, line 61:In human works, tho’ labour’d 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.
* (Should we move, merge or split this sense?) (transitive) To agree as a second person to (a proposal), usually to reach a necessary quorum of two. (This may come from etymology 1 above.)
    I second the motion.
* (transitive, music) To accompany by singing as the second performer.

##### Derived terms

* secondment
* secondee

##### Translations
#### Noun

second (plural seconds)
* 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, Mark W. Janis, 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
* 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.
* (obsolete) Aid; assistance; help.
** 1608, J. Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess:Give second, and my love / Is everlasting thine.

##### Translations
### Further reading

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
* Second in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

### References

* “second”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/oct/31/appeal-court-upholds-joint-enterprise-guilty-verdicts

### Anagrams

* CODENs, coends, condes, consed, decons, sconed

## French
### Alternative forms

* 2$^d$, 2$^e$ (abbreviation)

### Etymology

Inherited 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.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sə.ɡɔ̃/, (with liaison) /sə.ɡɔ̃t‿/, (informal) /zɡɔ̃/
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

second (feminine seconde, masculine plural seconds, feminine plural secondes)
* second
    une seconde possibilité ― a second possibility, another possibility
** 1863, Gautier, Fracasse:« Chiquita! Chiquita! » À la seconde appellation, une fillette maigre et hâve […] s’avança vers Agostin."Chiquita! Chiquita!" At the second call, a thin and emaciated little girl […] came up to Agostin

#### Usage notes

For added "precision and elegance", the French Academy recommends using second when only two items are being considered, reserving deuxième for other situations, i.e. when more than two items are being considered; although this rule is not mandatory. The Academy however advises against ever replacing second with deuxième in fixed idioms such as de seconde main or seconde nature.

#### Synonyms

* (ordinal): deuxième

#### Derived terms

* dans un second temps
* de second ordre
* de seconde main
* de seconde zone
* état second
* second degré
* second souffle
* second violon
* Seconde Guerre Mondiale
* seconde nature

#### Related terms

* secondaire
* seconde

### Noun

second m (plural seconds)
* assistant, first mate
    Synonyms: adjoint, aide, assistant
** 1874, Gobineau, Pléiades:Je m’attachai aux pas de miss Harriet et lui servis de second dans le classement du linge.I followed Miss Harriet and assisted her in sorting the linen.

#### Derived terms

* seconder

### References

* 1 2 3 http://www.academie-francaise.fr/second-deuxieme
* “second”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* cédons, condés

## Middle English
### Adjective

second
* Alternative form of secunde (“after the first”)

### Noun

second
* Alternative form of secunde (“after the first”)

## Old French
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin secundus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /səˈkunt/

### Adjective

second m (oblique and nominative feminine singular seconde)
* second

#### Descendants

* Middle English: secunde
** English: second
** Scots: second
* French: second

## Scots
### Alternative forms

* saicind, saicond, seicont

### Etymology

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”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈsikənt], [ˈsekənt]

### Adjective

second
* second

### References

* “secund, adj.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 23 May 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
* “second, adj., n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 23 May 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.