From: acornish@imm.cnrs.fr   
      
   On 2020-08-22 15:24:54 +0000, J. P. Gilliver (John) said:   
      
   > On Sat, 22 Aug 2020 at 10:57:25, Jenny M Benson    
   wrote:   
   >> On 22/08/2020 08:56, John Armstrong wrote:   
   >>> It happened once while I was at a Scottish boarding school in the 60s.   
   >>> Major, minor, and the youngest was "terts", short for "tertius", Latin   
   >>> for "third".   
   >>>   
   > Odd, as maior and minor don't mean first and second, but bigger and   
   > smaller (which usually mapped OK, as the older boy usually _was_   
   > bigger), and why I had a vague feeling minimus (smallest) might have   
   > been used when there was a third.   
   >>   
   >> An uncle-by-marriage of my mother's had a brother whose forenames were   
   >> John Middleton Tertius and he was known generally as Tertius.  Their   
   >> father's forenames were John Middleton as I presume their grandfather's   
   >> were also.   
   >>   
   > Was he the third after a father and grandfather, or the third to the   
   > same parents? (I have one ancestor* called Thirzen, who was the   
   > thirteenth [surviving - fourteenth altogether I think] child, and I   
   > like to think the parents were just too tired to think of another name   
   > for her.   
   > *not direct ascendant, a sibling of one [so a child of one]; is that   
   > still an ancestor?)   
      
   A pair of my great[5] grandparents had 17 children, of whom the   
   youngest son was called Henry Septimus and the youngest daughter was   
   called Louise Decima. I don't know how they knew that there wouldn't be   
   any more.   
      
   --   
   athel   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)