stereotype
/ˈstɛriəˌtaɪp/noun, verb
Fixed, oversimplified idea about a group
From Greek stereo- (solid) + Greek, through Latin and Middle English type (mark or impression).
Lineage
stereo-
type
The story
Picture a printer in 1798 arranging hundreds of tiny metal letters by hand, then making a single solid plate that could reproduce the whole page again and again. French called the method stéréotype: stereo- meant “solid,” while type carried the idea of a mark or impression. The word’s two halves have surprisingly physical origins: Greek stereós is linked to stiffness, while týpos began as a blow that left a dent or imprint. By the nineteenth century, a stereotype could mean any image or phrase reproduced without changing; in 1922, journalist Walter Lippmann used it for the simplified pictures people carry in their heads about social groups. The old printing plate is still hiding inside the modern word: a stereotype is an impression made so firmly that fresh evidence may struggle to erase it.
Words from the same roots
stereo- · Ancient Greek, ‘solid, firm; in later formations, three-dimensional’
Derivedstereoscope, stereopticon, stereophonic
Sources
- Etymonlinestereotype, stereo-, type, stamp, nimrod, boilerplate, please
- Urban Dictionarystereotype
- Wikipediastereotype
- Wiktionarystereotype, stereo-, type