hachure

See also: hachuré

English

From French hachure (“crosshatching”), from hacher (“to hatch”).

hachure (plural hachures)

(cartography, chiefly historical) A line on a map indicating the steepness of a slope.⁷
- 1990, Oxford University Press, The Oxford School Atlas (27th Edition), page 9, recto:
  "The adjoining Fig. 1 shows a mountainous island with the hill slopes indicated by a method of Hill-shading called 'hachures'. These hachures are lines indicating the direction of the slope. Where the slopes are steep the lines are thick and close together, making a dark shade; when the slopes are less steep the lines are finer and wider apart, gradually tapering off and becoming lighter until they stop where the slope ends, so that there is no hill-shading on level country."

Unlike contour lines, hachures are drawn in the direction of the slope and their thickness and closeness is used to represent the relief with shading. They are obsolete on most modern maps.

a map line indicating steepness

hachure (third-person singular simple present hachures, present participle hachuring, simple past and past participle hachured)

From hacher +‎ -ure.

hachure f (plural hachures)

hachure