agate line
- noun
- Archaic
:
línea de agata
- She purchased a small classified ad, which only took up five agate lines in the newspaper.
Examples
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An agate line is typically 1/14 inch deep.
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The advertisement cost was calculated based on the number of agate lines it occupied.
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Newspaper rates were quoted in terms of dollars per agate line per day.
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The agate line pricing is confusing for new advertisers.
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Newspaper rates were quoted in terms of dollars per agate line per day.
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The cost of advertising in the newspaper is calculated based on the number of agate lines used.
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She purchased a small classified ad, which only took up five agate lines in the newspaper.
Surface Forms
Morphology
agate + line
This is a specialized, industry-specific typographic term: 'agate' here names a particular small size or measurement, which is not the common meaning of the word and is not inferable from 'line' (a long narrow mark). Even a learner who knows 'line' (or who knows 'agate' only as a gemstone) would not predict the precise unit-of-measure sense or the 1/14-inch definition, so the overall meaning is not derivable from the parts.
Etymology
The noun agate line comes from old newspaper printing. One popular story says agate was the name for a 'very small size of print', so a single line of that tiny type was an agate line, and newspapers sold ads by how many of these little lines they used, which is why an agate line means a 'unit of ad space' today.
