1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sketch

SKETCH (directly adapted from Dutch schets, which was taken from Ital. schizzo, a rough draft, Lat. schedium, something hastily made, Gr. σχέδιος, sudden, off-hand, σχεδόν, near by; Ger. Skizze and Fr. esquisse are from the same source), a rough or hasty preliminary outline or draft serving as a note or material for a finished work. Though used of literary composition, as for a short slightly constructed play, or of a rapid delineation in words of an event or character, the term is chiefly used of the putting on paper or other material of the immediate impression of an object, figure, landscape, &c., by an artist, or of an artist’s first idea or conception of a work whether in painting or sculpture.