Fine parallel lines or cross-hatching marks used in drawing, engraving, or cartography to create shading and texture effects.
From French hachure, plural hachures, derived from hacher (to chop or hack), referring to the resemblance of the fine lines to multiple axe strokes.
Before the invention of photographic printing, mapmakers spent months applying hachures by hand to military maps—the precision and direction of these thousands of tiny lines conveyed crucial information about terrain that could determine military strategy.
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