Common origin for words meaning to draw??

Question

I have been trying to describe my ... ah, avocations? So far I have found the following words meaning 'to draw': abocetar, dibujar, esbozar (which seems to be a derivation of)bosquejar. (These are in addition to deseñar and trazar whose origins are quite obvious.) I have spent most of the morning trying to determine the etymology of these words (it really bothers me!!); they seem to have a common origin is some word/stem/etc. such as bos, bus, boc, maybe something similar spelled with p instead of b, but what? Short of buying an etymological dictionary of Spanish (which I will almost certainly do sooner or later - later if my husband finds out how expensive they are), I am stumped. muchas gracias !!

Answer 1

Try here:

(It's an online Spanish dictionary of etymology)

What I was going to suggest. :) - ian-hill, Apr 7, 2011

muchas gracias! 8-) - Lector_Constante, Apr 7, 2011

Answer 2

Look here link . . .it's the official Spanish dictionary and has word derivations, most of which come from Latin, Greek,or French.

Yes, thank you! :-} - Lector_Constante, Apr 7, 2011

Answer 3

dibujar: from French deboissier, originally wood carving, from "de-" (off) plus "bois" (wood), from Germanic "busk" (wood), the root of "bush" in English.

bosquejar: from Catalan (to plane down wood), from bosc (forest), from Germanic "busk" again.

boceto: from Italian "bozzetto", the diminutive of bozza (stone), from uncertain origin. "Abocetar" and "esbozar" derive form this root too. The root "bozza" could come from Latin "puteus" (a well).

Muchas gracias - I guess this also relates to the English word boss as well ... kinda weird! - Lector_Constante, Apr 7, 2011

Does anyone else wonder how one gets from puteus to "draw, sketch"?? - Lector_Constante, Apr 12, 2011