Hey, I could use some help…I’m writing about tech/engineering stuff and am looking for words having to do with sequence/order, ending in “-ary.”
Preliminary = beforehand
Primary = main or first
Secondary = second
Tertiary = third
Any words meaning “4th”? “5th?” “Final/last?” “Afterwards?”
Quaternary for fourth.
Marvelous, thanks!
Are there any tech/engineering terms meaning “afterwards?” I know that “penultimate” and “terminal” mean second-to-last and last, respectively, although those words don’t end in “-ary.”
I have a feeling it’s a neologism, but “postliminary” is in some online dictionaries, and I’ve seen it in articles. I can’t find a first use reference.
Not an order, but centenary signifies a period of 100 years.
“Subsequent” is the corresponding term that would signify “afterwards”. It’s not specifically a tech/engineering term but, then, neither are “penultimate” or “terminal”.
(Plus, there’s also “antepenultimate”, for third-to-last. And if you’re going with antepenultimate and penultimate then the obvious term for last is “ultimate” rather than “terminal”.)
duodenary — > why is the duodenum named that?
“Late Middle English: from medieval Latin, from duodeni ‘in twelves’, its length being equivalent to the breadth of approximately twelve fingers.”
Cool!