typus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈty.pʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈtiː.pus]^[1]

Forms

typus m (genitive typī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek τύπος (túpos, “blow, impression, figure”),^[2][3] from τύπτω (túptō, “to strike, beat”).^[1][4] The OLD also gives the Greek spelling typos.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero, in a letter to Atticus, asks him for reliefs to set into the plaster of a small hall.^[2][5] Köbler dates Cicero 81–43 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was a figure or image on a wall, a bas-relief, as in Cicero and Pliny the Elder.^[2][7] The land surveyors used it of a ground plan.^[2] In medical writers such as Caelius Aurelianus it was the type or phase of an intermittent fever.^[7][5]

Christian and medieval writers used it of a symbol, a mystical figure or prefiguration.^[8][1] In New Latin it meant a coin die and printing type, and the plural typī a printing house; in zoology it marks the type species.^[1] English type is recorded in the late 15th century as a symbol or emblem.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of reliefs.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a figure.^[7][6]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it of the type of a fever.^[7][6]
• late 15th century – Borrowed into English as type.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A figure, image; a bas-relief.^[2][7]
2. (surveying) A ground plan.^[2][1]
3. (medicine) The type or character of an intermittent fever.^[7][5]
4. (Medieval Latin) A symbol, mystical figure, prefiguration.^[8][1]
5. (New Latin) A coin die; printing type; in the plural, a printing house.^[1]

Related words

• typicus
• typoglypta
• typographia
• typographicus
• typographus
• English type
• English typical

Usage notes

In the sense of a periodic fever it is also a spelling of typhus, from Greek Ancient Greek τῦφος (tûphos, “fever, stupor”).^[1][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill