Art & MusicGreek → English
Monotype
/ˈmɒnətaɪp/noun
A print pulled as one impression from an image painted on a smooth plate, leaving nothing repeatable behind.
The Greek roots
μόνος
mónos
single, alone
τύπος
týpos
impression, stamp
Literally: “single impression”
The story of the word
Every other print process exists to make copies. This one exists to make exactly one, because the ink sits on bare metal or glass and comes off in a single pull. Degas made hundreds and often worked in pastel over the faint ghost left on the plate. The Monotype typesetting machine of the 1890s took the same name for the opposite reason, casting one letter at a time where its rival cast a whole line.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → modern coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
monotonetypographyarchetypestereotype
In a sentence
She pulled a monotype from the glass, then scraped the plate clean and started again.