lineal

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lineal,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French lineal, Anglo-Norman lineale,^[4][5][2][6] and directly borrowed from Late Latin līneālis (“consisting of lines, pertaining to a line”),^[5][3][7][8] from Latin līnea (“string, line, thread”),^[6][5][7] the source of line.^[8][9] The Anglo-Norman adjective is recorded from 1292, already in the sense "of the lineage".^[10] Compare linear, from Latin līneāris, recorded in English only from the 17th century.^[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to a line or lines: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De Proprietatibus Rerum.^[4][5] Etymonline gives the late 14th century, with the sense "resembling a line".^[6]

Semantic evolution

The geometrical sense came first, but the genealogical one, "in the direct line of descent", is recorded from before 1420, in Lydgate's Troy Book, where Pyrrhus is Achilles' son "by lyneal discent".^[5][2][4] From it came the legal contrast of lineal with collateral kin,^[4][11][3] and the sense "transmitted by lineal descent", from 1486.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "composed of lines", "descending in a direct genealogy", "claimed by descent" and "allied by direct descent", quoting Shakespeare and Locke.^[12] In the sense "linear" it is now less common than linear,^[13] but it survives in measurement, lineal feet, from 1705.^[4][3] The noun, a pedigree, is found once in Lydgate (1426), and a lineal descendant is called a lineal from 1757, rarely.^[4][2]

Timeline

• before 1398 – of or relating to a line or lines.^[4][5]
• before 1420 – in the direct line of descent, in Lydgate's Troy Book.^[5][2]
• 1426 – noun, a genealogy, pedigree (obsolete).^[4][2]
• 1486 – transmitted by lineal descent.^[4]
• 1705 – of measures, relating to one dimension; linear.^[4]
• 1757 – noun, a person related in the direct line (rare).^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Being in the direct line of descent from an ancestor, as opposed to collateral: a lineal descendant of the founder.^{[14][13][3][11]}
2. Derived from or relating to a line of descent; hereditary: lineal rights.^{[14][15][11][13]}
3. Belonging to or relating to a lineage.^[15]
4. Relating to or measured along a line; linear: forty lineal feet of shelving.^{[14][13][3][4]}
5. Composed of or arranged in lines.^{[15][3][4][12]}

Noun

1. A lineal descendant; a direct blood relative.^[3][11]

Word family

• lineally
• lineality
• multilineal
• nonlineal
• unilineal
• unlineal
• matrilineal
• patrilineal

Related words

• line
• linear
• lineage
• lineament

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
15. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster