catagraph

Noun

catagraph (plural catagraphs)

1. (obsolete) A rough draft of a picture; an outline or sketch.
   • till to A picture's first rude catagraph, the art Of an ingenious pencil doth impart Each complement of skill;1820, William Chamberlayne, Pharonnida - Volume 1, page 158
   • Somewhat maye this catagraph or portrature following serve to expresse the presentment of this great king Powhatan.1849, William Strachey, Richard Henry Major, The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia, page 53
2. (obsolete) A brief, incomplete description; an outline.
   • We have yet another to describe in our catagraph of the genus—the Snout. This is a nose concerning which there can be no mistake.1854, Robert Sears, The Family Instructor, Or, Digest of General Knowledge, page 156
   • Reader, in this little volume— a catagraph— the career of Lafayette from early boyhood to his lamented death has been traced.1861, E. P. H., The Life and Services of Major-general
3. A structure made from the traces of canals or cavities believed to be produced by cyanophytes or bacteria during the Late Precambrian and Lower Cambrian eras.
   • It is interesting that oncolites and catagraphs occur abundantly in limestones of the Schwarzkalk Limestone Member of the Kuib is Formation.1972, Gerard J. B. Germs, The Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the Lower Nama Group, South West Africa
   • The upper subdivision of these strata, the calcareous Dashkian Formation, contains the complete and distinct "fourth" oncolite and catagraph assemblage bearing Vesicularites bothrydioformis (Krasn.), Ambigolamellatus horridus, […]1981, The Tommotian stage and the Cambrian lower boundary problem, page 250