tierce

Etymology

From Old French tierce, from Latin tertia.

noun

1. (obsolete) A third.
2. (religion, Roman Catholicism) Synonym of terce: the third canonical hour or its service.
3. (now historical) A measure of capacity equal to a third of a pipe, or a cask or other vessel holding such a quantity; a cask larger than a barrel, and smaller than a hogshead or a puncheon, in which wine or salt provisions, rice, etc., are packed for shipment.
   He then gave me a large piece of silver coin, such as I never had seen or had before, and told me to get ready for the voyage, and he would credit me with a tierce of sugar, and another of rum […]. 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 6, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I
   Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31.5 gallons, a rundlet 18.5 gallons. 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, page 205
4. (music) The third tone of the scale. See mediant.
5. (card games) A sequence of three playing cards of the same suit. Tierce of ace, king and queen is called tierce-major.
6. (fencing) The third defensive position, with the sword hand held at waist height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
7. (heraldry) An ordinary that covers the left or right third of the field of a shield or flag.
8. (obsolete) One sixtieth of a second, i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system. (Also known as a third.)