# Third, Fourth, Fifth [closed]

A friend of mine made a simple bar bet, in which he wrote down a list of ten words. Turning it around to show me, he covered up the first two words with his hand. The eight words below his hand were the following:

THIRD
FOURTH
FIFTH
SIXTH
SEVENTH
EIGHTH
NINTH
TENTH

He bet me \$20 that I would not be able to guess the first words on the logically-ordered list on my first try, though I could name them in any order. Of course, I'm thinking, I'll just say 'FIRST' and 'SECOND', easy$20. So I did. And he removed his hand. And much to my surprise, I was out twenty bucks for my haste.

What were actually the first two words on the list?

• A slight variation (not worth another question): ___ Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh ___ Ninth Tenth Oct 25 '14 at 2:16
• never take a bar bet if you dont already know the answer Oct 27 '14 at 20:16
• @supercat So what is the answer to your sub-question? Oct 28 '14 at 19:49
• @Trenin: Unison and octave (musical intervals). Oct 28 '14 at 19:59

WHOLE
HALF

were the first two words.

• Correct. At first glance, one sees a sequence of ordinal numbers, but if the first two are WHOLE and HALF, they're a sequence of ever-decreasing fractions. Oct 23 '14 at 20:45
• Although note that this only really works in American English - A British English speaker would likely never use "A fourth" instead of "A quarter". Oct 23 '14 at 22:41
• @JonStory Don't think this works in American (or Canadian) English either; we say "quarter" too. Oct 28 '14 at 19:46

Senior and Junior. The list was suffixes for descendants with identical names, such as King George IV, which is King George the Fourth.

EDIT: Answer 2 Whole and half. One whole, one half, one third, etc.

• It's a good answer, but it's not the one I'm looking for. Normally, in that context, you wouldn't use "Third", "Fourth", etc... you'd use Roman numerals. Oct 23 '14 at 20:38
• I'd also argue that this isn't true. The current British Monarch, for example, is Queen Elizabeth the Second. I've never heard of a monarch referred to as Senior or Junior. Oct 23 '14 at 22:40
• @Jon This isn't specifically referring to monarchs. Many times, in the US at least, if a father and a son have the same first and last name, they are referred to as Junior and Senior. Oct 23 '14 at 22:43
• Ah my apologies, the use of King George as a reference confused me :) Oct 23 '14 at 22:46
• Yeah, it's just not common to see a name passed down to a 3rd generation, and fairly rare to see it passed down to a 4th generation. The most accessible example people will be familiar with is historical royalty. Oct 24 '14 at 19:30

They could be “Main” and “Second”. In the town I live in (and perhaps in some other small towns) west-side streets parallel to Main are $2^{nd}, 3^{rd}, 4^{th}, 5^{th}$ etc. (East-side streets are B, C, D...; ie, Main does double duty standing in for $1^{st}$ St. and A St.)

• Thought this one too. Nov 21 '16 at 15:40