Develop
mid 17th century (in the sense ‘unfold, unfurl’): from French développer, based on Latin dis- ‘un-’ + a second element of unknown origin found also in envelop.
wiktionary
Borrowed from French développer, from Middle French desveloper, from Old French desveloper, from des- + voloper, veloper, vloper(“to wrap, wrap up”) (compare Italian -viluppare, Old Italian alternative form goluppare(“to wrap”)) from Vulgar Latin* vloppō, * wloppō(“to wrap”) ultimately from Proto-Germanic *wrappaną, *wlappaną(“to wrap, roll up, turn, wind”), from Proto-Indo-European *werb-(“to turn, bend”)[1]. 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.
etymonline
develop (v.)
1650s, "unroll, unfold" (a sense now obsolete), from French développer. It replaced earlier English disvelop (1590s, from French desveloper); both French words are from Old French desveloper, desvoleper, desvoloper "unwrap, unfurl, unveil; reveal the meaning of, explain," from des- "undo" (see dis-) + voloper "wrap up," which is of uncertain origin, possibly Celtic or Germanic.
The modern uses are figurative and emerged in English 18c. and after: Transitive meaning "unfold more fully, bring out the potential in" is by 1750; intransitive sense of "come gradually into existence or operation" is by 1793; that of "advance from one stage to another toward a finished state" is by 1843. The intransitive meaning "become known, come to light" is by 1864, American English.
The photographic sense "induce the chemical changes necessary to cause a latent picture or image to become visible" is from 1845; the real estate sense of "convert land to practical or profitable use" is by 1865. Related: Developed; developing.Developing as an adjective in reference to poor or primitive countries or nations that are advancing in economic, industrial, and social conditions is by 1960.
