thirdhand
1
6.7
Comes through two people, not from the original person
- adjective
- /ˈθɜrdˌhænd/
:
de tercera mano
- I heard the news about the festival from a friend, so it was thirdhand information for me.
Examples
-
Learning about the incident thirdhand made it feel less real than if I had seen it myself.
-
His grandfather had bought it thirdhand many years ago.
Fiction book (1994) -
Nor banks, nor credit cards, nor anything else as flimsy and thirdhand as those.
Fiction book (2002) -
She only found out about the promotion thirdhand through her colleague's conversation.
Synonyms
third hand
vsthirdhand
1
7.4
Information told by someone who heard it from someone else
is passed through two intermediaries rather than being broadly indirect
How Direct
Surface Forms
thirdhand positive
Morphology
Etymology
Thirdhand follows the idea of secondhand. Third means one step further and hand stands for 'from someone', so thirdhand information is passed on through two other people and not directly from the original source.