lineally en · ADV
Etymology
Etymology tree English lineal Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *-līkê Proto-West Germanic *-līkē Old English -līċe Middle English -ly English -ly English lineally From lineal + -ly.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) In terms of lines; linewise.
For copying drawings to a scale differing from the original; e.g., to reduce a drawing, lineally, one fifth: […]
1888, Henry Albert Reed, Topographical Drawing and Sketching, page 9:
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(not-comparable, qualifier:genealogy) By direct descent.
[…] 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.
1726, Jonathan Swift, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, London: Benjamin Motte, Volume 2, Part 3, Chapter 8, pp. 108-109:[…] 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.
1953 September 18, Saul Bellow, chapter XI, in The Adventures of Augie March […], New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC, page 205: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.
1857, Anthony Trollope, chapter 4, in Barchester Towers: