ALISTAIR MA CLEAN,
The Guns of Navarone
An interesting point is that in this particular “ideal” theme, the fundamental diagram of the face is the same as the one of the whole body; the link between the two is that the height of the face is equal to the vertical distance between the middle of the body (intersection of the legs in “ideal” specimens) and the navel (the
minor
of the two segments in the Φ proportion determined by the navel) is equal to the distance between the tip of the medium finger (the arm hanging vertically) and the floor or horizontal level supporting the whole.
MATILA GHYKA,
The Geometry of Art and Life
in balance with respect to relationship between elements or features
proportional
larger on or leaning to one side
lop-sided
heavier or larger on top
top-heavy
having a perfectly divisible order left and right (bilateral) or top and
bottom
symmetrical
not symmetrical
asymmetrical
having radial symmetry
actinoid, actinomorphic, actinomorphous
north
northern, northerly, boreal, hyperborean
south
southern, southerly, austral, meridional
east
eastern, easterly, oriental
west
western, westerly, occidental
opposite
contraposed, antipodal, counterposed, contrary
pertaining to opposite sides
heterolateral
at the top
apical, topmost
at the bottom
basal, bottommost
on or to the right
dextral
The movement made to swing the left arm holding the muleta, which is crossed in front of the body, out and past the right side to get rid of the bull is called crossing. Any time the man does not make this cross he will have the bull under him. Unless he swings him far enough out the horn is certain to catch him.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY,
Death in the Afternoon
Sometimes the ice is black and glossy, blasted smooth by the endless wind, with only a few swaths of snow lying on it. Sometimes it is hummocky, with drifts of snow sheltered behind the hummocks. Sometimes it is ridged and buckled from the enormous strains of the wind, the currents and the line of advancing bergs.
RICHARD BROWN,
Voyage of the Iceberg
Although on a hilltop, the fortress has a comparatively low-lying profile and is sunk into an encircling dry ditch. The towers and the revelin do not rise above the parapet of the curtain walls, so that the whole fortress appears flat-topped with the exception of its traditional square mastio which rises higher in the centre of the fort.
QUENTIN HUGHES,
Military Architecture
on or to the left
sinistral
to or at the side
lateral, flanking
on the same side
ipsilateral, ipselateral, homolateral
on the opposite side
contralateral
upright or up-down in direction
vertical, perpendicular, plumb, erect, true
side to side in direction
horizontal, level, plane
extending crosswise linearly
cross, transverse, athwart, diagonal
at an angle or in a sloping direction or position (from the perpendicular)
angled, aslant, slanting, slanted, oblique, raked, canted,
inclined, tilted
from corner to opposite comer
diagonal
on the outside
external, exterior, without, outer, outermost
on the inside
internal, interior, within, inner, innermost
center
core, nucleus, middle, centrum, heart, nexus
edge
periphery, border, margin, marge, fringe, boundary, frontier
extending out from a center
radial, radiating
middle (linearly)
central, midway, medium, mean, mesial, midmost,
middlemost
The process begins with a simple geometric form, a triangle, positioned in three dimensional space. The midpoint of each edge of the triangle has been connected to the other midpoints dividing the original triangle into four triangles. The midpoints are deflected randomly upward or downward to give volume to the form.
RICHARD MARK FRIEDHOFF,
Visualization: The Second Computer Revolution
Above him Escher’s head grew smaller and smaller against the bright circle of sky at the mouth of the moulin. At this depth the shaft divided into two parts like the legs of a pair of trousers. Agassiz chose the wider of the two ways but soon found it repartitioned into a number of impassable holes. Upon signaling to Escher, he was hoisted back up to the bifurcation and then allowed to descend the other passage. He was now more than 100 feet below the surface of the glacier.
RONALD H. BAILEY, Glacier
... detailed features are shown not by conventional signs nor by their outline ground-plans, but by pictures of their actual appearance as viewed from above at an oblique, near vertical, angle. At first sight this seems to be simply the technique of the bird‘s-eye view, and we might say that Varle’s plan of Philadelphia is a mixture of bird’s-eye view and map.
P.D.A. HARVEY,
The History of Topographical Maps
constituting a central line or axis
axial
coming together linearly
meeting, converging, convergent, intersecting
going in two different directions
separating, diverging, divergent, bifurcating, bifurcate,
bifurcal, dichotomous, diffluent
running in directional alignment without touching
parallel, nonconvergent, nondivergent, paradromic,
collateral, collimated
not with or near
apart, separate, individual, discrete, disjunct, detached,
independent, asunder
brought apart
detached, disconnected, unfastened, sundered, disjoined
in pieces or parts
divided, partitioned, compartmentalized, segmented
in two parts
bipartite, dual, double, twofold
in three parts
tripartite, triple, threefold, triform
in four parts
quadripartite, quadriform, fourfold
divided into two usually equal parts
bisected
divided into three usually equal parts
trisected
divided into four usually equal parts
quadrisected
scattered
dispersed, distributed, disseminated, strewn, diffused
The house, leading straight on from the stables, is in the shape of a flat dome surmounted by open work walls as in a lighthouse.
LARA VINCA MASINI,
Gaudi
The final element of the surround was a gate. A sturdy young tree, stripped of its branches, was positioned upright at one side of an opening in the fence. A hole was dug for the base, and a mound of stones was piled up around it for support.
JEAN M. AUEL,
The Mammoth Hunters
Some of the much-moved bluestones were reset in a circle around the five trilithons, while those that had been elegantly smoothed were arranged in a horseshoe inside the trilithons. The tallest of them was erected near the centre. A circle inside a circle, a horseshoe within a horseshoe, a central pillar.
AUBREY BURL,
Rings of Stone
A fleet of barges were coming lazily on, some sideways, some head first, some stern first; all in a wrong-headed, dogged, obstinate way, bumping up against the larger craft, running under the bows of steamboats, getting into every kind of nook and corner where they had no business, and being crunched on all sides like so many walnut shells; ...
CHARLES DICKENS,
The Old Curiosity Shop
Before lowering the boat for the chase, the upper end of the line is taken aft from the tub, and passing round the logger-head there, is again carried forward the entire length of the boat, resting crosswise upon the loom or handle of every man’s oar, so that it joggs against his wrist in rowing; and also passing between the men, as they alternately sit at the opposite gunwales, to the leaded chocks or grooves in the extreme pointed prow of the boat, where a wooden pin or skewer the size of a common quill, prevents it from slipping out.
HERMAN MELVILLE,
Moby-Dick
continuous
continual, uninterrupted, unbroken
not continuous
discontinuous, interrupted, broken, disjunct
at a point farther than
beyond
having the same position or place
coinciding, coincident
coinciding when superimposed
congruent
lying along the same straight line
collinear
even or continuous with a given surface
flush
having coinciding axes (or being concentric)
coaxial
of the same size
equivalent, equisized
near
nearby, close, close by, proximal, proximate, nigh,
immediate, in the area of, propinquous, propinquant,
neighboring, vicinal
next to
adjacent, contiguous, apposite, paradromic (parallel),
bordering, side by side, juxtaposed, cheek by jowl,
conterminous, coterminous, abreast, beside, by, alongside
up against or connected to
abutting, adjoining, against
distant
far, far away, far off, at a distance, long-range, a good way
equally near to or far from
equidistant
On the other side, to their left, Geoffrey’s house came in sight, almost a bird‘s-eye view, the bungalow crouching, very tiny, before the trees, the long garden below descending steeply, parallel with which on different levels obliquely climbing the hill, all the other gardens of the contiguous residences, each with its cobalt oblong of swimming pool, also descended steeply toward the barranca, the land sweeping away at the top of the Calle Nicaragua back up to the pre-eminence of Cortez Palace.
MALCOLM LOWRY,
Under the Volcano
He was left alone with his gray sandwich in the now spacious compartment. He munched and gazed out of the window. A green bank was rising there diagonally until it suffused the window to the top. Then, resolving an iron chord, a bridge banged overhead and instantly the green slope vanished and open country unfurled—fields, willows, a golden birch tree, a winding brook, beds of cabbage.
VLADIMIR NABOKOV,
King, Queen, Knave
I descended upon the glacier. The surface is very uneven, rising like the waves of a troubled sea, descending low, and interspersed by rifts that sink deep. The field of ice is almost a league in width, but I spent nearly two hours in crossing it. The opposite mountain is a bare perpendicular rock.
MARY SHELLEY,
Frankenstein
at the edge
peripheral, border, marginal
at or near the beginning
initial
at or near the end
terminal, final
near the point of attachment
proximal
at the far end from the point of attachment
distal
over
above, atop, upward, higher, superior
lying above
superjacent, superincumbent
placed above
superposed