Everyone knows the term stereotype, but did you ever stop to wonder what the word has to do with stereos? Not much, really. But it does derive from the world of printing. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Etymology of Stereotype”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Lisa from Silver Spring, Maryland.
Hiya, Lisa. What’s going on?
Well, a word popped in my head the other day, and I thought the two parts of the word, I can’t understand what they have to do with the word itself. The word is stereotype.
Stereotype.
So I don’t know what that has to do with stereo anything.
Aha. Aha.
I had a few ideas, but they’re kind of out there.
Yeah? Do you want to share one?
Well, I thought it would be kind of cool if it had something to do with those old-fashioned stereo viewers. Like maybe there was the mass production of images of typical subjects. Those were stereotypes. Or maybe it’s related to daguerreotypes, and those cards were called stereotypes. Or maybe it’s just much more literal.
Well, you know what? You’ve raised two possibilities that are really interesting because each of them has an element of truth, but it’s actually something a little different. It’s interesting that you bring up stereoscopes because to understand the word stereotype, first you have to understand the Greek word stereos means solid.
Oh.
And when you talk about stereoscopes, you know how you look through those things and the stuff looks real.
Right.
It looks solid. And a stereophonic sound system is a sound system that seems like it has a more natural sound. It kind of has that illusion of being actual, quote-unquote, solid music. So you have to…
Wow. I always just thought stereo had something to do with coming from two directions.
Well, yeah. Both of them have that aspect.
Exactly. Yeah, it’s because the sound comes from those two separate directions that it seems real. It seems like the musicians are right there with you. And so the first part of this word, stereos, means solid. And the word stereotype, it’s interesting that you mentioned daguerreotypes because stereotype has to do with a method of printing that was perfected in the late 18th century by a French printer named Fermin Didot.
Here’s how he revolutionized printing of things like, say, newspaper ads. This guy figures out a way to take a block of movable type and then create a mold from it. And then once he’s created that mold, he drops the mold into hot, softened metal, and that lets him create an exact duplicate of the original, so he can start printing from that. And if he can make one of those metal blocks, he can make lots of them.
And Lisa, here’s where you come in. Do you know what this printer called that big solid metal block that he used?
Yes, he called it a stereotype.
Right on. That’s exactly it. So it comes from the world of printing, and that’s such a compelling image that by 50, 60 years later, people were using it metaphorically to be, you know, what, a duplicate, a copy, the same thing over and over.
The same thing over and over.
Yeah.
What a long way that word has come. That is just not anything I ever would imagine. That’s fascinating.
Well, I’m glad that we can still surprise.
Yeah, good job.
Yeah.
I want to thank you for calling.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lisa.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
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