Underlining

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. The practice of drawing a line beneath words to highlight them ; the actual line placed under text for emphasis
2. An action that involves marking a line under written material to draw attention ; the physical line under text serving as emphasis
3. A method of emphasizing text by placing a line below it ; the underline marking that appears beneath specific words or sentences

Etymology: Underlining is one of the plainest compounds in English: "under" plus "line", with the "-ing" suffix turning the combination into a noun for the act or result. The line itself comes from Old English "līne", a word for a cord or string, which reached English through Latin "linea", a linen thread. The sense of a drawn stroke followed from the idea of a thread stretched across a surface, and once writers were drawing lines across paper, placing one beneath a passage was a natural next step. The word combines "under" and "line" in the older sense of a written line of text. Its history is a straightforward matter of compounding, with nothing surprising hidden in its roots. The sense that matters most is the physical stroke beneath words, which is how the word is used today.

Synonyms: emphasizing, highlighting, stressing, marking, inscribing