I wasn't sure I believed this, so I looked it up: https://www.etymonline.com/word/second https://www.etymonline.com/word/second and yep, that's generally the ri

I wasn't sure I believed this, so I looked it up: https://www.etymonline.com/word/second https://www.etymonline.com/word/second and yep, that's generally the right history. In Medieval Latin, pars minuta prima "first small part" was used by mathematician Ptolemy for one-sixtieth of a circle, later of an hour (next in order was secunda minuta, which became second).