(1)(Br) Glossary for the LNWR Society--More generally, at any junction the most important through line is the main line and any line off it a branch....
www.lnwrs.org.uk/Glossary/glossarybr.php

(2) Golf glossary: Information From Answers.comGolf glossary This is a list of common golfing terms. ... Through line: When putting, the imaginary path that a ball would travel on should the putted ball
www.answers.com/topic/golf-glossary



(3) Glossary--....THROUGH-LINE: Unifying element of a scene, act or play. ...
www.redbirdstudio.com/AWOL/terms.html

I'm not sure the Democrats are much better....but their historic through-line is better--Jim Webb, apostate from GOP to Dems-- TIME Mag, quoted by Joe Klein

This third sense is a new one on me and I can't find it in the usu dictionaries. Either it's very obscure or very new. Anyone know for sure

Thanks all

It's an old familiar to me, Dale - I can recall for example talking to Sir Peter Hall's son about this term as one his father used quite a lot, to describe the 'long arc' of story underlying the mechanics of specific plot details in a drama. I believe the term was pioneered by Konstantin Stanislavski, sometimes also referred to as the "Superobjective".

Don't know how common it is outside of specialist circles but it makes sense to me, I assume it is something akin to a thread or unifying thematic or narrative force in a work/scene/play. The author Michael Connelly seems to know it:

"Maybe the pursuit that is engendered by the crime or if it's a bad-guy story—the crime that is going to be committed—is the all-encompassing through line." Interview

Yep, a quick check on my Stan-the-man memory seems to check out ~ a google takes me here for example, and I have no doubt there's heaps more - so I expect Micheal Connelly would be familiar with it from the drama context. I would tend to write it as one word or as a hyphenated pair rather than two separate words, fwiw.

> I would tend to write it as one word or as a hyphenated pair rather than two separate words, fwiw.

And I would tend to agree. That was the decision of the transcriber in the above quote.

i checked the link first, and i am glad i did--i was going to say the only reference i could think of was a rail/subway line.

sometimes called the main line in Northeast (maybe even in all of US) --most notably in Pennsy, where the main line helps define not just the railway, but the upper crust of society!

LIRR has several through lines, the original line (port washington line) and the Jamaica line -(to babylon) and many branches. some lines terminate in jamaica, some in hunters point, some at atlantic avenue, but the through line continues to Penn station. (which is also the terminal for the LIRR.

Mav--wonderful to see you! [blowing kisses e]

Interesting--for the common thread def. I'd write through-line; for the train I'd put through line.

Thanks all. But if it was used by Stanislavski, then it can't be very new. However, how do we explain why the term isn't found in the usu dicts

Not even Merriam New Explorer with 330,000 terms

Could the reason be, that the expr is considered literal rather than idiomatic

> why the term isn't found in the usu dicts

perhaps because it's a phrase?

Hiya J - thanks for the welcome on a (probably) fleeting visit - frantic at work, dead puter at home! Yes, I suspect I'd do the same as you: perhaps because the phrasal form "~ line" is familiar? eg, "the up line, the down line..."

I think you hit the mark about a phrase, eta. otoh, I have seen it written (drama context) as a single word... but mebbe that's a kind of term of art case.

The through line, sometimes also called the spine, was first suggested by Konstantin Stanislavski as a simplified way for actors to think about characterisation. He believed actors should not only understand what their character was doing, or trying to do, (their objective) in any given unit, but should also strive to understand the through line which linked these objectives together and thus pushed the character forward through the narrative.
- Wikipedia stub (you guys should go edit!)

edit:
1950 E. R. HAPGOOD tr. Stanislavski's Building a Character viii. 113 It is only when our feelings reach down into the subtextual stream that the ‘through line of action’ of a play or a part comes into being.
-OED2

assignment for student: Google[Books] "through line"; count theater vs. railroad usages

Thanks all

The Jim Webb quote then seems an extension of the musical usage and he means the Dems have a more consistent philosophy than the GOP

Thanks all

The Jim Webb quote then seems an extension of the musical usage and he means the Dems have a more consistent philosophy than the GOP; while a quick Googling seems to confirm this more general definition, meaning a coherent premise or philosophy underlying any sort of group strategy. But I am still puzzled why the expr isn't found in most dictionaries

Quote:

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...have a more consistent philosophy than the GOP

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Granted (consistently bad).