Is the word “second” in the sense of “next after the first” the same word as the one meaning “small unit of time,” or are they two different words taht have come to be pronounced and spelled the same? If they are the same word, how did the word come to have those two meanings?
Are they (or is one of them) cognate with the words succession, sequence and/or segue?
-Kris
The second is also a unit of angular measure: one sixtieth of a degree.
The “second” is the “second” division after the “minute” (the “first” small division). From the OED:
Dogface: very very interesting. Thanks!
Q.E.D.: I know, but thanks anyway.
-Kris
Hey, so, does that there OED go into the ultimate origins of the words “prime,” “first,” and “second”? Like, back to Proto-Indo-European or anything like that?
Why are they so different from the numerals to which they correspond, when “third,” “fourth,” and so on resemble their numerals much more closely?
-FrL-