develop

Meaning

Verb

• To discover, find out; to uncover.
• To change with a specific direction, progress.
• To progress through a sequence of stages.
• To advance; to further; to promote the growth of.
• To create.
• To bring out images latent in photographic film.
• To acquire something usually over a period of time.
• To place one's pieces actively.
• To cause a ball to become more open and available to be played on later. Usually by moving it away from the cushion, or by opening a pack.
• To change the form of (an algebraic expression, etc.) by executing certain indicated operations without changing the value.

Origin

• Borrowed from French développer, from Middle French desveloper, from Old French desveloper, from des- + veloper (compare Italian viluppare, Old Italian alternative form goluppare) from Vulgar Latin *vloppō, *wloppō ("to wrap") ultimately from Proto-Germanic *wrappaną, *wlappaną, from Proto-Indo-European *werb- . Akin to Middle English wlappen ("to wrap, fold") (Modern English lap ("to wrap, involve, fold")), Middle English wrappen ("to wrap"), Middle Dutch lappen ("to wrap up, embrace"), dialectal Danish vravle ("to wind, twist"), Middle Low German wrempen ("to wrinkle, scrunch, distort"), Old English wearp ("warp"). The word acquired its modern meaning from the 17th-century belief that an egg contains the animal in miniature and matures by growing larger and shedding its envelopes.