Etymology
1. c.1300, "impression, mark," from O.Fr.
preinte "impression," prop. fem. pp. of
preindre "to press," from L.
premere (see press (v.1)). Sense of "picture or design from a block or plate" is first attested 1662. Meaning "piece of printed cloth" is from 1756.
Out of print "no longer to be had from the publisher" is from 1674. The verb is c.1384, "to impress with a seal or die;" the sense of "produce a book" (1511) is from earlier
imprint. The meaning "to record (someone's) fingerprints" is from 1952.
Printer is recorded from 1504; in the computer sense, from 1946.
Printer's bible so called from mistaken substitution of
printers for
princes in Psalm cxix.161, which led to the misreading:
"Printers have persecuted me without a cause."
2. From Middle English *printen, prenten, preenten, an apheretic form of emprinten, enprinten (“to impress; imprint”) (see imprint). Compare Dutch prenten (“to imprint”), Middle Low German prenten (“to print; write”), Danish prente (“to print”), Swedish prenta (“to write German letters”). Compare also Late Old French printer, preindre (“to press”), from Latin premere (“to press”). See: Dutch '
prenten', Danish '
prente', Swedish '
prenta', Latin '
premere'.
Verbs referencing "print"
Cebuano print, Finnish with old forms
printata, Dutch
printen, Romanian
printa.