stereotypical

Etymology

It is formed from English stereotype + -ical.^[2][3][4][5] Stereotype is from French stéréotype (“printed by means of a solid plate of type”),^[3][2] from Ancient Greek στερεός (stereós, “solid”) and type (“type”).^[3][2] The shorter stereotypic is recorded from 1801, in the literal sense "relating to stereotype plates or printing".^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of, relating to or resembling a stereotype, a fixed and oversimplified idea of what a kind of person or thing is like: 1949, in the journal Commentary.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Stereotype was borrowed in the late 18th century for a method of printing from a solid plate cast from set type, took on the figurative sense of something fixed and repeated without change in the mid-19th century, and its modern sense of a preconceived, oversimplified idea in the early 20th century.^[6][3] Etymonline and Grammarphobia trace this last sense to Walter Lippmann in 1922.^[3][6] Stereotypical was formed on that sense, and psychology also uses it for behaviour repeated without variation whatever the circumstances.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1949 – of, relating to or resembling a stereotype.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Conforming to a stereotype; based on a fixed, oversimplified idea of what a person, group or thing is like: The film relies on stereotypical villains.^[5][4][2]
2. (psychology) Of behaviour, repeated without variation regardless of circumstances.^[4][2]

Word family

• nonstereotypical

Related words

• stereotype
• stereotypic
• type

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart, The Grammarphobia Blog, grammarphobia.com, p. "Why “stereo” in “stereotypical”?", 8 May 2013