type

Pronunciation

• IPA: /taɪp/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English type (“symbol”), borrowed from Latin typus (“figure, image, form, kind”),^[2][3][4] perhaps through Late Latin or French,^[5][6] borrowed from Ancient Greek τύπος (túpos, “a blow, dent, impression; figure, image, model”),^[2][3][7] from the root of τύπτω (túptō, “to strike, beat”).^[2][3][4] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare Sanskrit tupáti, “he hurts”,^[3][8] and Klein and Etymonline derive the root from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tup- (“to strike, cut”), a variant of *(s)teu- (“to push, knock, beat”).^[7][2] The same root is in Latin stupēre (“to be stunned”), the source of stupid.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A symbol or emblem: about 1470, in Robert Henryson's Moral Fables of Aesop;^[3] in theology, an Old Testament figure foreshadowing a person or event of the New Testament.^[4]

Semantic evolution

A figure or picture of something is recorded from 1559 to 1774,^[9] and a distinguishing mark from 1595.^[9] In medicine, from the early 17th century, it was the characteristic pattern of a fever.^[4] The sense “small block with a raised letter for printing” is, as Barnhart remarks, curiously not recorded before 1713,^[3][2] and printed characters collectively are type from 1778^[9] or 1784.^[2] The general form or character common to a class appears in 1843, in John Stuart Mill's System of Logic, and “a kind or class” in 1854,^[3] senses that the Latin and Greek words already had.^[2][3] The verb meant “to foreshadow” from 1596^[3][10] and “to typify” from the 1620s;^[2] “to write with a typewriter” is a shortening of typewrite recorded in 1888,^[3][2] and “to typecast” is from 1933.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1470 – a symbol, emblem (Henryson).^[3]
• 1596 – verb, to foreshadow.^[3][10]
• 1620s – verb, to typify.^[2]
• 1713 – a printing type.^[3][9]
• 1784 – printed characters.^[2]
• 1843 – the general form common to a class (Mill).^[3]
• 1854 – a kind or class.^[3]
• 1888 – verb, to typewrite.^[3][2]
• 1933 – verb, to typecast.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A group of people or things sharing traits that set them apart as a class.
2. The general character or structure common to such a group.
3. A person or thing that has the features of a group; an example or model.
4. (informal) A person of a particular kind: not my type.
5. A small block with a raised letter or character, used in printing; such blocks, or printed characters, collectively.
6. (theology) A figure that prefigures a later one.
7. (biology) The specimen on which the name of a species or genus is based.

Verb

1. To write with a typewriter or keyboard.
2. To determine the type of a blood or tissue sample.
3. To typecast.
4. To represent or typify.
5. (theology) To prefigure.

Word family

• typeable
• typist
• pretype
• retype
• typebar

Related words

• typical
• typify
• typography
• typewriter
• stereotype
• prototype
• archetype
• stupid

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary compares type with kind, sort, nature, character and ilk: in strict use type implies that the members of a group share their traits so closely that the group stands out clearly.^[11]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
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. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin