Wiktionary
n. 1 (cx bullfighting English) Each of the three stages of a bullfight - with the vara, the banderilla and finally the death 2 An infantry formation made up of pikemen, swordsmen and arquebusiers or musketeers in a mutually supportive formation
Wikipedia
A tercio ( "third") or tercio español ("Spanish third") was a Spanish infantry organization during the time Habsburg Spain dominated Europe in the Early Modern era. The tercio was an administrative unit with command of up to 3000 soldiers, subdivided originally into ten, later twelve compañías, made up of pikemen, swordsmen and arquebusiers or musketeers. These companies were deployed in battle and were further subdivided into units of thirty soldiers. These smaller units could be deployed individually or brought together to form what were sometimes called Spanish squares. These powerful infantry squares were also much used by other European powers, especially the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire.
The care that was taken to maintain a high number of "old soldiers" (veterans) in the units, and their professional training, together with the particular personality imprinted on them by the proud hidalgos of the lower nobility that nurtured them, made the tercios for a century and a half the best infantry in Europe. Moreover, the tercios were the first to efficiently mix pikes and firearms. Tercio companies dominated European battlefields in the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century and is seen by historians as a major development of Early Modern combined arms warfare. According to the French bishop and scholar Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet the spanish tercios fought in the battle as true human walls
Usage examples of "tercio".
Wink carried the two fragments of fur back to the display room and, without doing anything that drew attention to himself, carefully compared the two bits with the pelts which Decimo Tercio was attempting to sell for five thousand dollars each.
Decimo Tercio stood a very good chance of getting five thousand dollars apiece for the skins.
This Decimo Tercio was a strange fellow, and his clothing was even more unusual.
Decimo Tercio, with his buckskin suit and his metal shoes, was something different.
Decimo Tercio, dwelling in particular upon the peculiarity of his garb of buckskin trousers and coat, and his one-piece metal shoes.
The communication stated the ostensible facts--that a mysterious fellow named Decimo Tercio had brought unusual pelts to St.
Arnold Columbus by name--called Chris for short--wanted to locate Tercio, it being more important than anything else in the world that he do so.
Louis fur exchange and learned that a man named Decimo Tercio had yesterday offered for sale some furs of a type hitherto unknown.
They had not found Decimo Tercio, the mysterious man with strange furs to sell.
I found their hideout, listened outside the window, overheard Tercio finally tell them where his plane was.
The mysterious man, Decimo Tercio, stood between them, waving his coat as a stop flag.
Fancife did see Tercio running, his howl of profanity reached their ears loudly.
So the fellow might have selected the name Decimo Tercio as a sly practical joke.
Apprehension of Decimo Tercio was directed on the ground that he was the kidnap victim, hence a material witness.
We finally figured it out that Tercio got to another highway, and must have hailed a car.