Crossword Genius

Stand in centre, man will follow line (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tangent

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'line' is the definition.
(I know that tangent is a type of line)

'stand in centre man will follow' is the wordplay.
'stand in centre' becomes 'tan' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'man' becomes 'gent' (gent is a kind of man).
'will follow' says to put letters next to each other.
'tan'+'gent'='TANGENT'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tangent that I've seen before include "mathematician's line" , "Line that touches curve without crossing it" , "Trig ratio" , "Straight line touching a circle" , "A new line of thought" .)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.
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