I just want to know the meaning of blueprint.
Some websites say it's a method of printing, some say it merely means a pattern or design used by engineers or architects to document their ideas.
I am really confused. Can someone explain to me the basic intention and meaning that underpins this word? If so, it would be much appreciated.
Originally, a "blueprint" would result when an architect, engineer, or draftsman drew a plan in pencil or ink on thin paper ("velum"), then laid that paper over a sheet of special chemically-treated paper and exposed it to a strong light for several minutes. Upon treatment with ammonia fumes, the chemically-treated paper would turn blue where the light struck it and remain white where the pencil/ink lines blocked the light (ie, it produced a "negative" image). This permitted quickly making accurate reproductions of the original drawing.
Over the years the process was changed such that the image was no longer "negative", and eventually it was replaced with xerographic reproduction, but the term "blueprint" stuck.
Since a blueprint was what, eg, a carpenter referenced when building a house, the term "blueprint" came to mean simply "plan", and it is often used in a metaphorical sense when there is no actual drawing per se. (Eg, "The congressmen conferenced and produced a blueprint for the new tariff law.")
The meanings of words change over time: the original meaning of the word referred to a particular process which only produced monochrome images, and even then they were white and blue. Photocopiers and later CAD systems made the technology obsolete but the word remains.
Now the word refers to a detailed design, often by an architect or engineer; something suitable to give to manufacturing, not the sketch you made on the back of a napkin.
Blueprint is
a contact print of a drawing or other image rendered as white lines on a blue background, especially such a print of an architectural plan or technical drawing.
a mechanical drawing produced by any of various similar photographic processes, such as one that creates blue or black lines on a white background.
These are the two simplest definitions:
blueprint
noun
an early plan or design that explains how something might be achieved:
their blueprint for economic reform
Source: Cambridge Dictionaries Online
a plan that shows how someone will design, build or achieve something
Source: Cambridge Dictionaries Online (Learners)
Its meaning evolved over time. Currently it basically means a detailed plan for any subject.
