Etymologically
Log in

type

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:56. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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

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