What’s logic with three truth values? Are you thinking of trinary and not ternary? I think of a ternary expression as one of the form “(a < b) ? 5 : 2” and that seems like the most common usage from a C++, JavaScript, and Python perspective. https://www.programiz.com/cpp-programming/ternary-operator
OTOH, it doesn’t matter what assumptions we make, right? Words and phrases often have multiple meanings. The word ternary means composed of three parts, and that fits here.
Ternary is the right word. Ternary numbers or logic have 0,1,2 or true, false, and something else. Ternary functions just have three arguments that could be binary logic, similar to a second order polynomial.
Ternary comes from the Latin root word ternarius (composed of three things) which contains the root word ter- or tern- which is an adverb variation of the original root terti- meaning 3rd. Same with binary, it comes from the adverb variation bi- or bin- meaning second. Bi- being derived from the original Greek dy- or di-. However, ternary is more correct than trinary because in the binary, we are not using the Latin root for the cardinal two, duo-. We use the adverb version of two, bi-. Trinary just sounds better to some people because tri- and bi- rhyme. For a numerical system composed of four components, we use quarternary which also uses the adverb form of 4, quarter(n)-, instead of the cardinal form, quadr(i)-.
Personal opinion, saying trinary makes you sound like you don't have any formal education.
Haha don’t get me started! And people who say ‘base 3’ and 3-ary sound like complete morons.
You’re right; ternary is totally valid and does seem more common now that I look it up. Trinary is a valid synonym, and in the dictionary, and mentioned in the Wikipedia for ternary, and was in fact used by many people during my formal education. Your personal opinion sounds like it’s rather presumptuous, not correct, and designed to start a fight. You have the right to keep it to yourself… or change your mind.
OTOH, it doesn’t matter what assumptions we make, right? Words and phrases often have multiple meanings. The word ternary means composed of three parts, and that fits here.