What is "lineation"

Lineation \Lin`e*a"tion\ (l[i^]n`[-e]*[=a]"sh[u^]n), n. [L. lineatio the drawing of a line, fr. lineare.] Delineation; a line or lines.

late 14c., from Latin lineationem (nominative lineatio) "the making in a straight line," noun of action from past participle stem of lineare (see lineament).

n. 1 (context geology English) A linear feature in rock, often structural 2 (context literature English) The way in which line breaks are inserted in a poem

1. n. the line that appears to bound an object [syn: outline]

2. the act of marking or outlining with lines

In Western handwriting, the baseline, the x-height or corpus size, the height of the ascenders and the bottom line of the descenders make up four horizontal (virtual) lines which represent the lineation of handwriting. In many teaching methods of writing at primary school, these guidelines are actually present on paper to aid the child in producing well-formed characters of the proper size. In adulthood the lineation remains, virtually, and can be used in handwriting recognition by performing an analysis of the horizontal density of minima and maxima of the writing trace. The density at the baseline of handwriting will be highest, followed by the density of the corpus size. As ascenders and descenders occur only infrequently, their densities will be low, especially if a single word is considered.

Lineations in structural geology are linear structural features within rocks. There are several types of lineations, intersection lineations, crenulation lineations, mineral lineations and stretching lineations being the most common. Lineation field measurements are recorded as map lines with a plunge angle and azimuth.