Word of the Day: Second

sec-ond / ˈse-kənd, written numerically as 2nd   adjective  

1. after or next to the first in line

When you have read a book for the first time, you get to know a friend; read it for a second time and you meet an old friend. Chinese Proverb  

2. inferior

Your second-hand bookseller is second to none in the worth of the treasures he dispenses. Leigh Hunt, 1784-1859  

3. ranking below the top authority

…it is my first voyage as second mate – and I am only twenty – and here I am lasting it out as well as any of these men, and keeping my chaps up to the mark. from ‘Youth’ by Joseph Conrad, 1857-1924  

4. alternate

Every second year in May a small Dutch town called Zwolle is invaded by hordes of fly tyers and fly fishers from the whole Globe. https://globalflyfisher.com/reports/the-last-fly-fair  

5. another

Several women writers through the years have been called a “Second Jane Austen” (Barbara Pym and Alison Lurie are two who come to mind). from ‘Jane Austen and Anne Tyler, Sister Novelists Under the Skin: Comparison of Persuasion and Saint Maybe’ by Gene Koppel, ?- http://jasna.org/persuasions/printed/number15/koppel.htm?  

6. relating to a lower part in a musical ensemble

The soprano section is generally divided into two parts itself, first and second soprano. https://lessonsinyourhome.net/blog/soprano-voice-role-chorus/   noun (1)  

1. number 2 in a series

Let a wrong-doing repeat itself at least three times: the first may be an accident, the second a mistake, but the third is likely to be intentional. African Proverb  

2. the position following the top ranked position

The art of motion pictures is pictorial and language comes a distant second. Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1943-  

3. a musical interval between two notes right next to each other

A major second is made up of two half steps. C to D is a major second since it is a generic second on the staff and two half steps on the keyboard. musictheory.net/lessons/31  

4. plural, another helping of food

As we say in the American Institute of Wine and Food, small helpings, no seconds. Julia Child, 1912-2004   noun (2)  

1. 1/60^th of a minute

Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for twenty-two minutes to make sense of something that most people would give up on after thirty seconds. Malcolm Gladwell, 1963-  

2. one instant or moment

Sometimes the course of our lives depends on what we do or don’t do in a few seconds, a heartbeat, when we either seize the opportunity, or just miss it. Aiden Chambers, 1934-   verb  

1. to aid

Education may work wonders as well in warping the genius of individuals as in seconding it. Amos Bronson Alcott, 1799-1888  

2. to support a motion

If the parent had wished to proceed in a certain way but was made insecure by opposing opinions of neighbors, friends, or relatives, then it gives him great comfort to find his ideas seconded by an expert. Bruno Bettelheim, 1903-1990   adverb  

1. in the place after first

The grandiose person is never really free; first because he is excessively dependent on admiration from others, and second, because his self-respect is dependent on qualities, functions, and achievements that can suddenly fail. from ‘The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for True Self’ by Alice Miller, 1923-2010  

2. before other options, but following the top or premiere choice

English is the largest of human tongues, with several times the vocabulary of the second largest language… Robert A. Heinlein, 1907-1988