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It is not only important, but, in a degree necessary, that the people of this country, should have an American Dictionary of the English language; for, although the body of the language is the same as in England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some differences must exist. Language is the expression of ideas; and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas, they cannot retain an identity of language. |
TER'TIARY, a. Third; of the third formation. Tertiary mountains are such as result from the ruins of other mountains promiscuously heaped together.
Tertiary formation, in geology, a series of horizontal strata, more recent than chalk beds, consisting chiefly of sand and clay,and frequently embracing vast quantities of organic remains of the larger animals. It comprehends the alluvial formation, which embraces those deposits only which have resulted from causes still in operation; and the diluvial formation, which is constituted of such deposits as are supposed to have been produced by the deluge.
Being of the third formation,
order, or rank; third; as, a tertiary use of a word.
Trench. Possessing some quality in the
third degree; having been subjected to the substitution of three atoms or
radicals; as, a tertiary alcohol, amine, or salt. Cf.
Primary, and Secondary.
Later than, or subsequent to, the
Secondary.
Growing on the innermost
joint of a bird's wing; tertial; -- said of quills.
Tertiary age. (Geol.) See under Age,
8. -- Tertiary color, a color produced by the
mixture of two secondaries. "The so-called tertiary colors are
citrine, russet, and olive." Fairholt. --
Tertiary period. (Geol.) A member of the Third Order in any monastic system; as, the Franciscan
tertiaries; the Dominican tertiaries; the Carmelite
tertiaries. See Third Order, under Third.
Addis *** Arnold. The Tertiary era, period, or
formation.
One of the quill feathers
which are borne upon the basal joint of the wing of a bird. See
Illust. of Bird.
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