Printing Part 2: hot off the press, stereotype, typecast, make a good impression

Earlier I had an earlier post about some words and phrases that come from the world of printing and this is part two. Most of the words and phrases are quite old and printing processes have changed a lot, but some of these are still in common usage. I picked up this information from the book Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History. 

When you hear that something is "hot off the press" you know it's something new and up to date, but at one time it was something literally hot. In printing, it's not the paper or the press that is hot in temperature, it is the metal type itself. The Linotype machine invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler allowed compositors to type on a keyboard what they wanted to print and as they did so the machine would cast the type right there out of molten metal (mostly lead). 

This process really sped up the older typesetting process of arranging "cold" pieces of type letter by letter.

The etymology of the company name Linotype is supposed to have come from the owner of the New York Tribune who excitedly said, “You have done it; you have produced a line o’ type.”

Take the idea of creating thousands of exact printed copies from a single original setting of type further and you get the modern meaning. The term "stereotype" is still widely used to mean when it is assumed that every person from a single group is the exact same. "He is a stereotypical jock."

When an actor is chosen for a role because she fits a certain profile, she has been typecast. “Type” and “cast” are both printing words. Molten metal is poured into a mold in a process known as casting. An actor who "fits the mold" of a role is said to be typecast. "She is often typecast as the suburban mom."

When you meet someone for the first time, like on a date or in a job interview, you want to "make a good impression." The Latin word imprimere means “to press into or upon.” American printers would make a first printing or first edition but in British English a print run was an “impression.”