The term stereotype derives from the Greek words στερεός (stereos), "firm, solid"[4] and τύπος (typos), "impression,"[5] hence "solid impression".
The term comes from the printing trade and was first adopted in 1798 by Firmin Didot to describe a printing plate that duplicated any typography. The duplicate printing plate, or the stereotype, is used for printing instead of the original.
The first reference to "stereotype" in its modern use in English, outside of printing, was in 1850, in a noun, meaning "image perpetuated without change."[6] But it was not until 1922 that "stereotype" was first used in the modern psychological sense by American journalist Walter Lippmann in his work Public Opinion.[7]