different between help vs second

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English

Pronunciation

• enPR: h?lp, IPA^(key): /h?lp/
• Rhymes: -?lp

Etymology 1

From Middle English help, from Old English help (“help, aid, assistance, relief”), from Proto-Germanic *help? (“help”), *hilpiz, *hulpiz, from Proto-Indo-European *?elb-, *?elp- (“to help”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hälpe (“help”), West Frisian help (“help”), Dutch hulp (“help”), Low German Hülp (“help”), German Hilfe (“help, aid, assistance”), Danish hjælp (“help”), Swedish hjälp (“help”), Norwegian hjelp (“help”).

Noun

help (usually uncountable, plural helps)

1. (uncountable) Action given to provide assistance; aid.

2. (usually uncountable) Something or someone which provides assistance with a task.

3. Documentation provided with computer software, etc. and accessed using the computer.

4. (usually uncountable) One or more people employed to help in the maintenance of a house or the operation of a farm or enterprise.

5. (uncountable) Correction of deficits, as by psychological counseling or medication or social support or remedial training.

Usage notes

• The sense “people employed to help in the maintenance of a house” is usually an uncountable mass noun. A countable form - “a hired help”, “two hired helps” - is attested, but now less common. Helper could be used if no more specific noun is available.

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:help.

Synonyms

• (action given to provide assistance): aid, assistance

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English helpen, from Old English helpan (“to help, aid, assist, benefit, relieve, cure”), from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, Proto-Germanic *helpan? (“to help”), from Proto-Indo-European *?elb-, *?elp- (“to help”).

Cognate with West Frisian helpe (“to help”), Dutch helpen (“to help”), Low German helpen, hölpen (“to help”), German helfen (“to help”), Danish hjælpe (“to help”), Norwegian hjelpe (“to help”), Lithuanian šelpti (“to help, support”).

Verb

help (third-person singular simple present helps, present participle helping, simple past helped or (archaic) holp, past participle helped or (archaic) holpen)

1. (transitive) To provide assistance to (someone or something).

2. (transitive) To assist (a person) in getting something, especially food or drink at table; used with to.

3. (transitive) To contribute in some way to.

4. (intransitive) To provide assistance.

5. (transitive) To avoid; to prevent; to refrain from; to restrain (oneself). Usually used in nonassertive contexts with can.

Usage notes

• Use 4 is often used in the imperative mood as a call for assistance.
• In uses 1, 2, 3 and 4, this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. It can also take the bare infinitive with no change in meaning.
• In use 5, can't help is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) or, with but, the bare infinitive.
• For more information, see Appendix:English catenative verbs

Synonyms

• (provide assistance to): aid, assist, come to the aid of, help out; See also Thesaurus:help
• (contribute in some way to): contribute to
• (provide assistance): assist; See also Thesaurus:assist

Derived terms

Translations

Interjection

help!

1. A cry of distress or an urgent request for assistance

   (Robin Hood (1973))

Translations

Anagrams

• Pehl

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch helpen, from Middle Dutch helpen, from Old Dutch helpan, from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, from Proto-Germanic *helpan?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???lp/

Verb

help (present help, present participle helpende, past participle gehelp)

1. to help

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?lp

Verb

help

1. first-person singular present indicative of helpen
2. imperative of helpen

Esperanto

Etymology

From the bare root of helpi, following the model of English help! considered as internationally understood.

Interjection

help

1. Help! (as a cry of distress)

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *help?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xelp/, [he?p]

Noun

help f

1. help

Descendants

• Middle English: help
  • English: help
  • Scots: help

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) , “help”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Old Norse

Verb

help

1. first-person singular present indicative active of hjalpa

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowed from English help.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /h?lp/

Noun

help m (uncountable, not mutable)

1. help, aid

   Synonyms: cymorth, cynhorthwy

Derived terms

• help llaw (“a helping hand”)
• helpu (“to help”)

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian helpe, from Proto-Germanic *help?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /h?lp/

Noun

help c (plural helpen, diminutive helpke)

1. help, assistance, aid

   Synonyms: assistinsje, bystân

Further reading

• “help (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

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 *sek?- (“to follow”). Doublet of secundo. Displaced native twoth and partially displaced native other (from Old English ?þer (“other; next; second”)).

Alternative forms

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?k?nd/
• (US) enPR: s??k?nd, IPA^(key): /?s?k.(?)nd/, /?s?k.(?)nt/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /?s?k?nd/
• Hyphenation: sec?ond

Adjective

second (not comparable)

1. Number-two; following after the first one with nothing between them. The ordinal number corresponding to the cardinal number two.
2. Next to the first in value, power, excellence, dignity, or rank; secondary; subordinate; inferior.
3. Being of the same kind as one that has preceded; another.

Synonyms

• other

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

second (not comparable)

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

2. After the first occurrence but before the third.

Translations

Noun

second (plural seconds)

1. Something that is number two in a series.
2. Something 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.

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

6. A chance or attempt to achieve what should have been done the first time, usually indicating success this time around. (See second-guess.)
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.
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.

    Synonym: seconder

12. (informal) A second-class honours degree.

Related terms

• (music): secundal (adj.)

Translations

Verb

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.)

2. To follow in the next place; to succeed.

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

   • Sin is usually seconded with sin.

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

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: s??k?nd, IPA^(key): /?s?k.(?)nd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?s?k.(?)nd/, /?s?k.(?)nt/
• Hyphenation: sec?ond

Noun

second (plural seconds)

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.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• leap second
• millisecond
• nanosecond

Translations

Etymology 3

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

Pronunciation

Transfer temporarily

• enPR: s?k?nd', IPA^(key): /s??k?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd
• Hyphenation: sec?ond

Assist, Agree

• enPR: s??k?nd, IPA^(key): /?s?k.(?)nd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?s?k.(?)nd/, /?s?k.(?)nt/
• Hyphenation: sec?ond

Verb

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.
2. (transitive) To assist or support; to back.
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.)

4. (transitive, music) To accompany by singing as the second performer.

Derived terms

• secondment
• secondee

Translations

Noun

second (plural seconds)

1. One who supports another in a contest or combat, such as a dueller's assistant.
2. One who supports or seconds a motion, or the act itself, as required in certain meetings to pass judgement etc.

3. (obsolete) Aid; assistance; help.

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

Anagrams

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

French

Alternative forms

• (abbreviation) 2^d, 2^e

Etymology

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^(key): /s?.???/

Adjective

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

1. second

Derived terms

• dans un second temps
• de seconde main
• état second
• second degré
• second souffle
• second violon
• Seconde Guerre Mondiale
• seconde nature

Related terms

• secondaire
• seconde

Synonyms

• (ordinal): deuxième

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.

Noun

second m (plural seconds)

1. assistant, first mate

Synonyms

• adjoint, aide, assistant

Derived terms

• seconder

References

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

Anagrams

• cédons, condés

Middle English

Adjective

second

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

Noun

second

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

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin secundus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??kunt/

Adjective

second m (oblique and nominative feminine singular seconde)

1. second

Declension

Descendants

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