lineally

English

Etymology

From lineal +‎ -ly.

Adverb

lineally (not comparable)

1. In terms of lines; linewise.
   • 1888, Henry Albert Reed, Topographical Drawing and Sketching, page 9:

     For copying drawings to a scale differing from the original; e.g., to reduce a drawing, lineally, one fifth: […]

2. (genealogy) By direct descent.
   • 1726, Jonathan Swift, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World‎^[1], London: Benjamin Motte, Volume 2, Part 3, Chapter 8, pp. 108-109:

     […] I confess it was not without some pleasure that I found my self able to trace the particular Features, by which certain Families are distinguished, up to their Originals. I could plainly discover from whence one Family derives a long Chin […] . Who first brought the Pox into a noble House, which hath lineally descended in scrophulous Tumours to their Posterity.

   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, chapter 4, in Barchester Towers‎^[2]:

     Of the Rev. Mr. Slope’s parentage I am not able to say much. I have heard it asserted that he is lineally descended from that eminent physician who assisted at the birth of Mr. T. Shandy, and that in early years he added an "e" to his name, for the sake of euphony, as other great men have done before him.

   • 1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 11, in The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking Press, →OCLC, page 205:

     […] I admired them both made so well, she hard and spirited, editing her words for no one, and he so distinct-looking he might have been lineally direct from Cro-Magnon man—but of course with present-day differences, including the disorders.

Anagrams

• Lyellian