Etymology: < Middle French desain, desaing, desseign, Middle French, French †desing, †desseing, †dessing (French dessein and dessin , with semantic differentiation: see below) drawing, sketch (1529 as desseing ), plan, project (1548 as desain : see below), ground plan (1549 as desing ) < desseigner , dessiner , designer design v., but influenced semantically by Italian disegno (also †dissegno , †designo ) preliminary sketch for a literary work (a1400 with reference to a literary work, a1444 with reference to drawing), art or process of drawing or sketching (14th or 15th cent.), project, intention (a1471), graphic representation (a1519; < disegnare design v.). The English standard form shows remodelling after design v.The formal differentiation of French dessein (in senses corresponding to branch I.) vs. dessin (in senses corresponding to branch II.) was not complete until the end of the 18th cent.; the Academy dictionary of 1798 was the first dictionary to make this distinction consistently. For a detailed discussion of the orthographic history of both French words, see N. Catach et al. (1995) Dict. hist. de l'orthographe française (at cited words). Some older etymological dictionaries of French give a 15th-cent. dating for the sense ‘plan, project’ of the French word. This date is spurious, as the text from which the alleged occurrence is taken, the Chronique des chanoines de Neufchâtel, is an 18th-cent. forgery. Compare Spanish diseño (1589; 1511 as †designo).

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman designier, Anglo-Norman and Middle French designer, Middle French desiner, desseigner, deseigner, desseiner, dessigner, dessiner (French désigner and dessiner , with semantic differentiation (see below), and also (chiefly in senses corresponding to branch II.) †desseigner ) (of a name, symbol, etc.) to signify, mean (something) (c1150), to name, call (a thing or person) (1256 or earlier), to indicate, point out (a thing or person) (a1377), to describe (something) (a1481), to trace the outline of (a figure or form) (1529 as désigner ; now dessiner ), to purpose, intend (something) (1550; obsolete after the 18th cent.), to sketch, draw (a thing), to compose (a work of art) (1556 as dessigner ; 1552 used figuratively; now dessiner ), to form a plan or scheme of (something), to plan, project, conceive (something) (a1561 as desseiner ; obsolete after the 18th cent.). The French verb is partly < classical Latin dēsignāre (also dissignāre : see note) to mark out, trace out, to indicate, point out, to denote, to assign, to appoint, to order, plan, to scheme, perpetrate, in post-classical Latin also to say, mention, to symbolize, represent (4th cent.), to signify (6th cent.; < de- de- prefix + signāre sign v.¹), and partly (in later use, in senses corresponding to branches II. and III.) < Italian disegnare (see below; < classical Latin dēsignāre ), with remodelling after various related words (see below). Compare later designate v., which superseded this word in most senses of branch I., after the senses of the later two branches (especially of branch III.) had become dominant. With the senses of branches II. and III. compare later design n. I. and design n. II. respectively.Differentiation of forms and meanings in French. In modern French there are two distinct verbs: désigner (in senses of branch I.) and dessiner (in senses of branch III.), distinguished in both form and meaning. Of these, dessiner shows assimilation to the noun dessin (see design n.), on the model of other denominal verbs like chagriner to grieve (see chagrin v.). In Middle French, the situation was less clear; for instance, 16th-cent. texts contain instances both of designer in the senses ‘to project, to plan’ and ‘to draw, to sketch’ and of dessigner , desseigner in the sense ‘to indicate, to signify’. The senses corresponding to branch II. are not expressed by either modern French verb; †desseigner (borrowed < Italian, and remodelled probably after enseigner to teach: see ensign v.) is frequently attested in these senses from the 16th to the 18th centuries, but became obsolete in the 18th cent., and other verbs are now used to express these concepts, e.g. projeter project v. Forms and meanings in Italian. The chief senses of Italian disegnare (also †desegnare , †dissegnare ) are: ‘to represent (figures) by way of lines’ (1282 as †desegnare ), ‘to describe (something) verbally’ (a1292), ‘to indicate (something) by signs, to symbolize (something)’ (a1294; now rare), ‘to appoint, nominate (a person to an office)’ (a1316; now obsolete), ‘to plan, contrive, imagine (a piece of work prior to executing it)’ (1329), ‘to imagine, conceive (something)’ (a1363), ‘to represent (an object) graphically, especially in architecture’ (a1444), ‘to purpose, plan, intend (something)’ (a1498), ‘to provide for (something), to anticipate (something)’ (a1513; now obsolete). The chief senses of Italian designare , the learned counterpart of disegnare (from the same Latin etymon), are: ‘to delimit (an object) in space’ (first half of the 14th cent.), ‘to nominate (a person) for an office or as candidate in an election‘, ‘to signify, denote (something)’ (both 14th or 15th cent.), ‘to draw, sketch’ (1585; now obsolete), ‘to point out or represent’ (1853). In the late 16th cent. designare was also occasionally used in the sense ‘to purpose, plan, intend’. Forms in other Romance languages. Compare Old Occitan desenhar , Catalan designar (1408), Spanish designar (mid 14th cent.), Portuguese designar (13th cent. as †desynar ), all in senses corresponding to branch I., and (in senses corresponding to branch III.) Spanish diseñar (1535; < Italian). History within English. Although Middle English instances of the word could theoretically be taken as showing borrowings < classical Latin dēsignāre , this is unlikely on formal grounds. In sense 4 after classical Latin dēsignāre; this sense is not paralleled in French until later (1690). Form history. In β. forms with medial -seign- after Middle French, French †desseigner. In β. forms in dis- influenced by classical Latin dissignāre. In classical Latin there is some confusion between dēsignāre ( < de- + signāre ) and dissignāre ( < dis- dis- prefix + signāre). The latter form occurs in manuscripts and editions, especially in the senses ‘to order, plan’ and ‘to scheme, perpetrate’, where it may, at least in some cases, be the correct form. In post-classical Latin dissignare is attested in the senses ‘to separate, distinguish’, ‘to destroy’ (4th cent.).