different between mediant vs tierce

English

Etymology

From Italian mediante, from Latin medi?nt- (“being in the middle”), present active participle of medi? (“I am in the middle”), from medius (“middle”), from Proto-Italic *meðios, from Proto-Indo-European *med?yo- (“between”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mi?di.?nt/

Noun

mediant (plural mediants)

1. (music) The third degree of the diatonic scale.
2. (mathematics) A rational number whose numerator is the sum of the numerators of two other given rational numbers and whose denominator is the sum of the denominators of those same two other rational numbers.

   For any tangent pair of Ford circles corresponding to rational numbers r and s, the Ford circle tangent to both of them corresponds to the rational number which is the mediant of r and s.

Translations

Anagrams

• Dietman, dematin, dietman

Latin

Verb

mediant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of medi?

English

Etymology

From Old French tierce, from Latin tertia.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t??s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?t??s/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t??s/ (card)

Noun

tierce (plural tierces)

1. (obsolete) A third.
2. (religion, Roman Catholicism) Synonym of terce: the third canonical hour or its service.
3. (now historical) A measure of capacity equal to a third of a pipe, or a cask or other vessel holding such a quantity; a cask larger than a barrel, and smaller than a hogshead or a puncheon, in which wine or salt provisions, rice, etc., are packed for shipment.
   • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, vol. I, ch. 6:

     He then gave me a large piece of silver coin, such as I never had seen or had before, and told me to get ready for the voyage, and he would credit me with a tierce of sugar, and another of rum […] .

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 22:

     Have an eye to the molasses tierce, Mr. Stubb; it was a little leaky, I thought.

   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, p. 205:

     Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31.5 gallons, a rundlet 18.5 gallons.

4. (music) The third tone of the scale. See mediant.
5. (card games) A sequence of three playing cards of the same suit. Tierce of ace, king and queen is called tierce-major.
6. (fencing) The third defensive position, with the sword hand held at waist height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
   • 1837 Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History

     [W]e behold two men with lion-look, with alert attitude, side foremost, right foot advanced; flourishing and thrusting, stoccado and passado, in tierce and quart; intent to skewer one another.

7. (heraldry) An ordinary that covers the left or right third of the field of a shield or flag.
8. (obsolete) One sixtieth of a second, i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system. (Also known as a third.)

Translations

Anagrams

• cerite, receit, recite

French

Etymology

From Old French tierce, tiers, from Latin tertia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tj??s/

Adjective

tierce

1. feminine singular of tiers

Noun

tierce f (plural tierces)

1. (music) third
2. terce

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• écrite, étréci, récite, récité

Old French

Adjective

tierce m (oblique and nominative feminine singular tierce)

1. Alternative form of tiers

Usage notes

• Unlike Modern French tierce, it is attested with masculine nouns as well as feminine ones.