stereotype
Meaning
A fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality.
To have a fixed idea about a person or thing that does not account for individual differences.
Structure
Usage
The film challenges the old stereotype of the helpless heroine.
It's unfair to stereotype an entire generation based on the actions of a few.
He didn't fit the typical stereotype of a university professor.
Etymology
The word 'stereotype' has a fascinating journey from a technical printing term to a powerful social concept. It originated in the late 18th century from the French stéréotype, itself a compound of the Greek elements stereos ("solid") and typos ("impression, type"). Literally, it described a method of printing using a solid plate of fixed type, which allowed for mass reproduction of identical pages. This core idea of a "fixed, unchangeable impression" was metaphorically extended in the early 20th century to the field of social psychology. Here, it came to signify a preconceived and oversimplified idea about a group of people, likening the mental image to the rigid, mass-produced plate of the printer. Thus, the modern abstract meaning retains the original logic of something solidified and endlessly repeated without variation.
Analysis
- stereo: From Greek stereos, meaning "solid, firm, three-dimensional." In this compound, it conveys the sense of "fixed" or "rigid." - type: From Greek typos, meaning "blow, impression, model, figure." In this compound, it refers to a "model" or "pattern."