デッサン

CNRTL dates French dessin in the graphic sense to 1529, with earlier spellings such as desseing and later influence from Italian disegno. The French word comes from older verbs related to dessiner, "to draw". Japanese デッサン uses the French form dessin, not English drawing, and Shogakukan lists it as a French art term. The loan entered Japanese art education in the Meiji and Taisho period, when Western painting, oil painting, and art-school training used many French terms. Seisenban cites Hakuraigo Benran in 1912 and gives a 1930 example from Kawabata Yasunari's Harugeshiki. In Japanese schools, デッサン came to mean monochrome line drawing, often with pencil, charcoal, plaster casts, and still-life exercises. Related classroom words include クロッキー for quick figure sketches and スケッチ for sketches from observation. Modern デッサン is narrower than French dessin. French can mean drawing, design, pattern, or even a technical plan, while Japanese usually points to art training or the resulting sketch. Example: 石膏像をデッサンする. English drawing is broader and more ordinary, so translating every drawing as デッサン can sound too art-school specific in Japanese.