treci

Treci, typically written treći in standard South Slavic orthography, is a term used in Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Montenegrin to denote the ordinal number “third.” It functions as an adjective or pronoun in phrases that identify order or rank and agrees with gender and number.

Etymology and form: Treći derives from Proto-Slavic *treti, itself related to *tri “three.” In masculine form it is treći, in feminine treća, and in neuter treće. In Serbian Cyrillic it is written трећи. In non-diacritic contexts, especially in ASCII text or in databases, the form treci is commonly used.

Usage: The word appears in a wide range of ordinal contexts, such as dates, chapters, positions, or rankings. Examples include phrases like “treći dan” (the third day), “treći na listi” (third on the list), or “treće mjesto” (third place). Its function is primarily grammatical and numerical, not semantic beyond indicating position in a sequence.

Variants and scope: While treći is standard in the languages cited, the ASCII form treci may be encountered in older texts, computer systems, or international contexts that omit diacritics. The term is specific to South Slavic languages and does not constitute a separate concept beyond its role as the ordinal “third” within those languages.

See also: Third, ordinal numbers in South Slavic languages, Serbo-Croatian orthography.