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Origin and history of drawing

drawing(n.)

c. 1300, "a pulling, act of imparting notion by towing," in various senses; verbal noun from draw (v.). The meaning "act of forming or tracing by a pen, pencil, etc." is from late 15c,; that of "picture or representation produced by drawing" is from 1660s.

Drawing-board, "board on which paper is stretched for use in drawing," is from 1725; used in figurative expressions, with the sense of "beginning, starting point" is by 1941 (in the Peter Arno "Well, back to the old drawing board" cartoon in the New Yorker).

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to drawing

draw(v.)

"give motion to by the act of pulling," c. 1200, drauen, spelling alteration of Old English dragan "to drag, to draw, protract" (class VI strong verb; past tense drog, past participle dragen), from Proto-Germanic *draganan "to draw, pull" (source also of Old Norse draga "to draw, drag, pull," Old Saxon dragan "to carry," Old Frisian drega, draga, Middle Dutch draghen "to carry, bring, throw," Old High German tragan "carry, bring, lead," German tragen "to carry, bear"), from PIE root *dhregh- (see drag (v.)).

Sense of "make a line or figure" (by "drawing" a pencil across paper) is from c. 1200. Meaning "remove or extract (a weapon) by pulling" is from late 12c., originally of a sword. Sense of "to pull (a bowstring)" is from c. 1200. To draw a criminal (drag him at the tail of a horse to the place of execution) is from c. 1300.

Meaning "select one (from a number of lots, etc.)" is from c. 1300. Sense of "bring (a crowd, an audience, etc.) by inducement or attraction" is from 1580s. Of a ship or boat, "to displace (a specified amount) of water," 1550s. In card-playing, "to take or receive (a card)," by 1772; draw-poker is by 1850. To draw out "lengthen, protract" is from 1550s; to draw the line in the figurative sense of "make a limit" is by 1793. To draw blood is from c. 1400.

The difference between [Draw Poker] and Poker is, that the player can draw from the pack as many cards as he may wish,—not exceeding five,—which must be given him by the dealer; but previous to drawing he must take from his original hand the game number as he may wish to draw, and lay them in the centre of the table. ["Bohn's New Hand-Book of Games," Philadelphia, 1850]
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    draft
    c. 1500, a spelling variant of draught (q.v.) to reflect change in pronunciation. By the end of the 19c. it was the established form in the military, commercial, and many technical sentences, and it is now almost universal in American English as conforming to the pronunciation. T
    draught
    c. 1200, "act of pulling or drawing; quantity of liquid that one drinks at a time," from Old English *dreaht, *dræht, related to dragan "to draw, drag" (see drag (v.)). The oldest recorded sense besides that of "pulling" is of "drinking" (perhaps "so much as is drawn down the thr
    lottery
    1560s, "arrangement for an awarding of prizes by chance among those buying tickets," from Italian lotteria, from lotto "lot, portion, share," from a Germanic source. It is cognate with Old English hlot (see lot (n.)), and compare lotto. French loterie is from Middle Dutch loterje
    graphic
    graphically "vividly" is from 1570s), from Latin graphicus "picturesque," from Greek graphikos "of or for writing, belonging to drawing..., picturesque," from graphe "writing, drawing," from graphein "to write" (see -graphy)....Meaning "pertaining to drawing" is from 1756. Meaning "pertaining to the use of diagrams" is from 1866....
    protraction
    mid-15c., protraccioun, "drawing or writing of numbers," from late Old French protraction (15c.) and directly from Late Latin...protractionem (nominative protractio) "a drawing out or lengthening," noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin...Meaning "act of drawing out or prolonging" is from 1530s....
    plan
    1670s as a technical term in perspective drawing; more generally by 1706 as "the representation of anything drawn on a plane...; a drawing, sketch, or diagram of any object," from French plan "ground plot of a building, map," literally "plane surface...The notion is of "a drawing on a flat surface." A doublet of plain via a later, learned French form....
    derivation
    early 15c., derivacioun, originally in a now-obsolete sense in medicine, "a drawing off or away, a turning aside," from Old...Grammatical sense, "drawing or tracing of a word in its development or formation from its more original root or stem, a statement...The general meaning "origination, descent" is from c. 1600; that of "act or fact of drawing or receiving from a source" is...
    scribble
    mid-15c., scriblen, "to write (something) quickly and carelessly, without regard to correctness or elegance," from Medieval Latin scribillare, diminutive of Latin scribere "to write" (from PIE root *skribh- "to cut"). Or perhaps a native formation from Middle English scriben "to
    arrange
    late 14c., arengen, "draw up a line of battle," from Old French arengier "put in a row, put in battle order" (12c., Modern French arranger), from a- "to" (see ad-) + rangier "set in a row" (Modern French ranger), from rang "rank," from Frankish *hring or a similar Germanic source
    blot
    late 14c., "a spot or stain of ink;" also "a moral stain or blemish, a disgrace, a sin;" a word of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old Norse blettr "blot, stain," or from Old French blot, variant of bloc "block." The Middle English Compendium compares, hesitantly, Old French blo(s

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