Art & MusicGreek → English
Logotype
/ˈlɒɡoʊtaɪp/noun
A single piece of type carrying a whole word, and now a company name set as a fixed designed mark.
The Greek roots
λόγος
lógos
word, speech
τύπος
týpos
impression, stamp
Literally: “word-stamp”
The story of the word
In hot metal printing a logotype was one slug bearing a complete word, cast to save the compositor picking out the letters of the and and over and over. Newspapers kept their masthead as a standing logotype, which is how the word slid across to branding, and it was clipped to logo in the twentieth century. τύπος meant first the blow struck and then the mark the blow leaves, which is what a printing press does.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → modern coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
logotypographyprototypestereotypelogic
In a sentence
The rebrand kept the colours and redrew the logotype in a heavier weight.