what is the true meaning of "antique", "vintage" and "second hand" as
applied to objects.

Hi Necrosthedeathmaster,

The terms you are looking to have defined have varying definitions. I
will give you the ones most commonly used and give you some places to
look for additional information.

According to the website for the televsion show Antique Roadshow, "As
Michael points out, the word "antique" generally refers to an older
object valued because of its aesthetic or historical significance."

The definition of the word antique, since in some ways it carries a
relative meaning [what is antique in a younger culture like the US may
be considered not antique in an older culture like the UK]. In the US,
the definition was set somewhat by the US Customs officials who needed
to determine what imports should be classified as antiques. Their
conclusions were as follows:

"Antiques, they concluded, were objects that pre-dated the mass
production of objects in the 1830s. Since the defining moment went
back about 100 years, the office defined an antique as something made
over 100 years ago. Duty was collected on objects younger than the
century-old divider, and it still is."

[source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/roadshow/speak/antique.html ]

The definition of antique becomes totally different, as well, when you
are talking about cars [ex.
http://vintagecars.about.com/library/weekly/aa112297.htm ] or
computers [ ://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&querytime=QQAdB&q=antique+computers
]

Vintage is a term that varies even more than antique, mainly because
collectors have diferent standards for what attains vintage status in
their particular area of specialy. For a few examples see

"what is a vintage pen?"
     http://www.vintagepens.com/FAQbasics/vintage_defined.shtml
"what is vintacge base ball?"
     http://www.midwest-vintage-base-ball.com/Vintage.html
"what is a vintage glider?"
     http://www.cavgrove.freeserve.co.uk/vintage.html
"what is vintage tape?"
     http://www.vintagetape.co.uk/what.htm
"what is vintage US clothing?"
     http://www.farley.com/school/vintage/category.htm
     with examples: http://www.farley.com/school/vintage/category.htm
"what is a vintage saw?"
     http://www.vintagesaws.com/saws.html
"what is vintage sanrio?"
     http://www.angelfire.com/me3/rewetzel1/sanriotutorial1.html
"what is a vintage amp?"
     http://scobro.150m.com/Rivera/RiveraMusings.htm

Resource Rags, a used clothing reseller, defines vintage clothing as
follows: "Vintage clothing is recycled, previously worn garments with
a broad range of style, as it includes clothing from around the world
and as old as the turn of the century to present day. Vintage has
great appeal in many different ways." [source:
http://www.resourcerags.com/faquestions.html ]

The Clothing Show, another clothing sales site, describes vintage a
bit more precisely: "It's a term used to refer to clothing over a
certain age, traditionally, antique. The term is more loosely used
these days and refers to clothing prior to the 1950s. Pieces of
vintage clothing are almost always one of a kind finds. Clothing after
1950 is commonly referred to as Retro." [source:
http://hornet.velocet.ca/~dseong/faq.html]

Generally, while antiques need to be a certain number of years old to
be thought of as antique, vintage has more to do with the relative age
of the item, in terms of the age of the class of things to which it
belongs.
     
The word vintage comes to us from wineries and includes quality in its
definition "Characterized by excellence, maturity, and enduring
appeal" so while an antique could be anything that was particularly
old [and, one would assume, saleable] items that were vintage would be
presumed to be of high quality.

[source: http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=vintage ]

Antique, on the other hand, seems to have more of an arty sense to it,
and as well an archaic sense. To call a dress vintage would be a
compliment and to call it an atique might not be.

[source: http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=antique ]

Second-hand is the easiest of all of these because it basically just
applies to the previous life of the object. If an object is second
hand, it has been previously owned [and, one would assume, used]
before. It is, essentially, the opposite of "new" and can be of any
age, quality or style.

I hope this answers your question, if not please feel free to submit
some clarifying information as to what particular objects you are
interested in. Thank you for writing.

jessamyn-ga

google searches used

"what is vintage"
"what is antique"
"what is an antique"
"definition of antique"
"what is second hand"

The use of links to add deapth and clairity to the answers was great.  Thank you