Sekundäre

Sekundäre is the inflected form of the German adjective sekundär, meaning secondary or second in order of importance, sequence, or origin. It is used to describe things that are not primary but arise as a consequence, complement, or subsidiary to a main element. The term derives from Latin secundarius and has become common across many disciplines and contexts in German, where it appears in phrases such as sekundäre Merkmale or sekundäres System.

Grammatically, sekun­däre is one of the inflected forms of the adjective sekundär. Its exact ending depends on gender, number, and case, as well as whether it accompanies a definite article, an indefinite article, or no article. In everyday usage, it is attached to a noun to indicate a secondary attribute, effect, or category, for example in phrases like die sekundäre Bedeutung or das sekundäre System.

In common usage, sekundäre appears in several established terms across different fields. In economics, the secondary sector (sekundärer Sektor) refers to manufacturing and industry as distinct from the primary (extraction) and tertiary (services) sectors. In medicine and public health, sekundäre Aspekte include secondary prevention and secondary infections, which occur after an initial condition. In biology, sekundäre Geschlechtsmerkmale denote secondary sexual characteristics. In research and scholarship, Sekundärliteratur means literature that interprets or summarizes primary sources rather than presenting original data.

Overall, sekundäre functions as a flexible descriptor for elements that are not primary but related or consequential, with usage spanning science, economics, health, and academic discourse.