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Jan 22, 2010 This week's theme Miscellaneous words This week's words asperity obscurantism sedulous surcease lineament Next week's theme Words made with combining forms This week's comments AWADmail 395 Discuss Feedback RSS/XML A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg lineament PRONUNCIATION: (LIN-ee-uh-muhnt) MEANING: noun: 1. A distinctive feature, especially of a face. 2. A linear topographic feature, as of the earth. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin lineamentum (contour, outline), from lineare (to draw a line), from linea (line). Ultimately from the Indo-European root lino- (flax) that is also the source of line, align, lineage, linen, lingerie, lint, and linseed. USAGE: "A gleam of exultation shot across the darkly painted lineaments of the inhabitant of the forest." James Fenimore Cooper; The Last of the Mohicans; 1826. "The possibility that the lineament is a fault, and the possibility that it extends under Mt. Natib need urgently to be explored." Kelvin S. Rodolfo; The Geological Hazards of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant; The Philippine Star (Manila); Mar 5, 2009. Explore "lineament" in the Visual Thesaurus. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Sometimes, exhausted / with toil and endeavour, / I wish I could sleep / for ever and ever; / but then this reflection / my longing allays: / I shall be doing it / one of these days. -Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996)

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