suffix, repr. F. -type, L. -typus, Gr. -τυπος, f. root of τύπτειν to beat, strike: cf. TYPE sb.1 The termination -τυπος was used in Greek to form adjs., in sense ‘struck, driven, molded,’ as ἀντίτυπος repelled, reflected (also in active sense ‘repelling’), ἀρχέτυπος first-molded, πρωτότυπος original, primitive (also used absol. as sbs.). These have been anglicized as sbs., antitype, archetype, prototype; and many technical words connected with printing and other modern processes of copying have been formed on the model of them, with the sense ‘type, block, or plate for printing from,’ as in electrotype, logotype, phonotype, stereotype; ‘impression or picture,’ also ‘process of reproduction,’ as in autotype, calotype, chrysotype, collotype, cyanotype, ferrotype, phototype, platinotype, etc.; also in hybrid formations on Eng. words, as colortype.
