ext_147905 ([identity profile] prettygoodword.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] 1word1day2014-02-06 07:30 am

Thursday word: hachure

hachure - n., (ha-SHOOR, HASH-oor) in drawing, shading indicated by a series of short parallel lines or crosshatched lines; in mapmaking, parallel lines used to indicate topographic relief. v., (ha-SHOOR) to hatch, to make hachure marks.


This is, as you might guess, a French word that's very closely related to the English hatch -- and indeed, it's a case of the same word being imported to English twice, once as part of Anglo-Norman, once in the 19th century. In this sense, both are related to hatchet, the small axe, with an ultimate root sense of cut. As a mapmaker's technique, it's outdated, having been replaced by relief shading of isoaltitude contours.

A few quick lines and some hachure, and the street artist had made a remarkable likeness of her.

---L.

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