Typewriter

How to spell typewriter

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce typewriter

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does typewriter mean?

1. nounA mechanical or electric machine with a keyboard that prints letters onto paper one character at a time.

Typewriter in a sentence

• Her grandfather still kept an old typewriter on the desk in his study.

• The clatter of the typewriter filled the newsroom late into the night.

Where does typewriter come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound that joins 'type' and 'writer', coined in the United States in the early 1860s as the machine itself was being developed. The 'type' element traces back through Latin 'typus' to the Greek 'typos', which literally meant a blow, an impression, or the mark left by striking something; that sense of a stamped impression is exactly what the metal letter bars of the machine produce on paper. The 'write' element is native Old English, from 'writan', which originally meant to scratch, score, or cut, since the earliest writing was incised into wood or stone. The agent suffix '-er' makes the whole thing mean 'a thing that writes with type'. Interestingly, the same word was briefly used for the person operating the machine as well as the machine itself, before 'typist' took over that job. The smooth spelling causes few problems because both halves are familiar everyday words.

How the word is built

• type (a printed character)
• write (to inscribe)
• -er (agent/instrument suffix)