Emily Dickinson Lexicon

THIRD, a. [thurd; Sax. thridda; Goth. thridya; G. dritte; D. derde; Sw. and Dan. tredie; Fr. tiers; L. tertius; Gr. τριτος; W. trydy.]

The first after the second; the ordinal of three. The third hour in the day among the ancients, was nine o'clock in the morning. Third estate, in the British nation, is the commons; or in the legislature, the house of commons. Third order, among the Romanists, is a sort of religious order that observes the same rule and the same manner of life, in proportion as some other two orders previously instituted; as, the third order of Franciscans, instituted by St. Francis in 1221. Cyc. Third point or tierce point, in architecture, the point of section in the vertex of an equilateral triangle. Cyc. Third rate, in navies. A third rate ship carries from 64 to 80 guns. Third sound, in music. See the noun, Third.