Words & WritingGreek → English
Typography
/taɪˈpɒɡrəfi/noun
The design and arrangement of printed or displayed letterforms.
The Greek roots
τύπος
týpos
impression, stamp
γραφή
graphḗ
writing, drawing
Literally: “writing with stamps”
The story of the word
τύπος was the dent left by a blow, the mark a hammer makes. No Greek used the compound, since movable type arrived fifteen centuries after the language did; typographia was assembled in early modern Latin for writing done with stamped marks. Prototype, stereotype and archetype all keep the older sense of the mould rather than the letter.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
typeprototypestereotypearchetype
In a sentence
The typography is the only thing wrong with the poster: eleven fonts, no hierarchy.