Tertiate
adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The third year of training in various Christian religious orders (especially the Jesuits).
"Every day a whole hour must be devoted to it, in the novitiate even two hours; and every Jesuit is expected to spend at least one week in the year in meditation during his novitiate and in the tertiate a whole month."
- 2 One who is in their tertiate training.
"Her first house was in New York City , on Water Street , in the neighbourhood of Jerry McAuley's mission. In 1899 she became a Dominican tertiate."
- 3 The third classification of animals in some ranked taxonomic systems, such as that proposed by Linnaeus.
"That of De Blainville had " Primates " (primates and doubtful sloths) , "Secundates" (insectivores and carnivores) , "Tertiates" (rodents), and " Quaternates” (ungulates and sirenians), all in a grand division of the "well-toothed" ("bien dentés"), i.e. the edentates."
- 1 To reduce by one third; especially, kill one third of (a group of people).
"We are distinctly told that one cause of the terrible famine that has been — not decimating, but tertiating — the population of Rajpootana, has been the substitution of cotton for grain culture;"
- 2 To increase by half as much again; especially to increase the price in this way. obsolete
"The beam made for triplicating or tertiating any weight small enough to be weighed by it."
- 3 To do or perform three times or for the third time. obsolete, rare
"When you consult vvith me about the Personage that should first, or second, or tertiate your business with the King, I must answer as Demosthenes did of Action; My Lord Thresorer, My Lord Thresorer , and so again."
- 4 To divide into three parts, especially to divide into thirds.
"Had this question ever been scientifically treated, it would have been easy to see that this discord arises from the inappropriate position of the arithmetical termini which man, while in the stage of ante-grammatical inventiveness, fixed at ten (10) from the number of his fingers; that it is not given to us to conceive thé relation between part and parcel , or unit and fraction, but after having halved, or at most tertiated a unit or the fraction arising from such a process; that we, therefore, no more can fancy what the tenth part of a loaf of bread is than count the sands of the desert;"
- 5 To examine, as the thickness of the metal at the muzzle of a gun; or, in general, to examine the thickness of, as ordnance, in order to ascertain its strength.
- 1 Having 2:3 proportion.
"The proportions are not tertiate, and there is no north gate."
- 2 Having three parts.
"apex generally somewhat acuminate; margin entire, crenate or finely dentate — leaves on lower branches and coppice shoots reputed to be 1-3 lobed; lateral veins 2-4 pairs, tertiate veins forming a prominent reticulum."
Example
More examples"We are distinctly told that one cause of the terrible famine that has been — not decimating, but tertiating — the population of Rajpootana, has been the substitution of cotton for grain culture;"
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin tertiāt-, the perfect passive participial stem of Latin tertiō, from tertius (“third”). By surface analysis, terti- + -ate.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.