Everyday LifeGreek → English
Type
/taɪp/noun
A category of things sharing common features, or a piece of metal bearing a raised letter for printing.
The Greek roots
τύπος
týpos
blow, impression, mark
Literally: “the mark left by a blow”
Follow a root:τύπος10 words
The story of the word
τύπος comes from τύπτω, to strike, and named first the dent a blow leaves, then the mould that makes such a dent, then the model behind a whole class of things. Printing took the oldest sense literally: a piece of metal struck into paper. The English word arrived in the 15th century meaning symbol or foreshadowing, picked up the printing sense by 1713, and only settled into kind or sort in the 1840s.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 15th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
typicaltypographyprototypearchetypestereotype
In a sentence
That type of engine was discontinued years ago.
He is not the type to leave without saying anything.