Hi Ken,
Great post. Do you know which is the1548 text? Was it printed? Note that
that first English "dictionary" Robert Cawdrey’s (1604) “/Table of Hard
Words” reports,/
/“[fr] deseigne, (*synonyms*) an appointing how any;
//[fr] deseignment, things shall be done (* synonyms end *);//
[fr] design, to marke out, or appoint for any purpose.”/
Curious that Cawdrey mark them all as originated in French. None of
these meanings are related to the arts and sciences. Note also the
different writing. Only "to marke out" is written as our Design (and
yes, it is a verb).
I Agree with your claim "In English, design began as a verb to describe a process of thought and planning. This verb takes precedence over all other meanings". Precedence, not prevalence.
But this Design was not the Design that originated schools and professions. The Design that originated schools, academies, professions, was Wotton's design. And let me correct you when you wrote "As Eduardo noted, the English word design did not encompass both the sense of graphical representation and the sense of idea" What I noted was that the word DRAWING didn't encompassed both the sense of graphical representation and idea. However Haydocke know the word design as "marke out" or "things shall be done" didn't thought it was fit for translating "disegno". My humble opinion is that three different words came to be written in the same way but having three different meanings. They are homographs and not three meanings of the same word. My survey through Gutemberg Project of Shakespeare work and later in Swift and Jane Austen shows "design" with the meaning "things shall be done" mostly as a wish and not as a plan carefully prepared.
In Nathan Bailey's first English Etymological Dictionary he clearly separates design from design in arts and sciences from the other meanings.
/**/
Thanks,
Eduardo
Cawdrey, Robert. 1604. A Table Alphabetical Hard Words.
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/ret/cawdrey0.html
"Nathan Bailey‟s An Universal Etymological English Dictionary, printed
for the first time in 1721:
Desi´gn [dessein, Fr. disegno, It. Desinio, Sp. Designatio, Lat.] 1.
Intention, purpose, resolution, enterprise, or attempt. 2. Contrivance,
project, scheme, plan of action. Is he a prudent man that lays designs
only for a day? Tillotson. 3. A scheme formed to the detriment of
another. A sedate settled design upon another man‟s life. Locke.
Design [respecting arts and sciences] denotes the thought, plan and the
geometrical representation of any thing.
Design [in painting] the first draught or sketch of a picture, or, in
general, it is the thought that artist had about any great piece;
whether the contours and out-lines, be only drawn, or whether the piece
has the shadows, or the colours; so that if there appears much skill or
judgment, it is common to say, the design‟s great and noble. In the
designs of several Greek medals, one may often see the hand of an
Apelles or Protogenes. Addison.
Design [in painting] is also used to signify the just measures,
proportions and outward forms, which those objects ought to have, that
are drawn in imitation of nature, and may be called a just imitation of
nature.
To Desi´gn [designer, dessiner, Fr. Desegnare, It. Designàr, Sp. Of
designo, Lat.] 1. to draw a design of any thing, to plan, to form in
idea. Observe whether it be well drawn, or, as most elegant artisans
form it, well designed. Wotton."
Bailey, Nathan. 1736. Universal Etymological English Dictionary.
University of Virginia: Electronic Text Center,
http://www.oclc.org:5046/oclc/research/panorama/contrib/liamquin/baileys/index.html
Note that Bailey gives a wrong quote of Wotton's. instead of "tearm it"
he writes "form it"
--
Eduardo Côrte-Real
Prof. Doctor
IADE, Lisboa
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