Tippex

English

Alternative forms

• Tipp-Ex, tippex

Etymology

Tipp-Ex is originally a trademark, owned since 1997 by Société Bic. Its use in the general sense is an example of trademark erosion. The first component is from the German verb tippen (“to type”), and the second from Latin ex.

Noun

Tippex (uncountable)

1. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A particular brand of correction fluid, or correction fluid in general.
   • 1996, Tamara Goriely, Tom Williams, The Impact of the New Training Scheme: Report on a Qualitative Study:

     If an application form is completed incorrectly or there's Tippex on it or the spelling is incorrect, then frankly I do not have the time or the patience to think that we will recruit that person...

   • 1996, Pat Ingoldsby, Laugh without prejudice, →ISBN, page 164:

     Perhaps we can manufacture special bottles of Tippex For Unwanted Tummies. Perhaps we can manufacture special bottles of Tippex For Use on Burnt Toast.

   • 2010, David Ames, Alistair Burns, John T. O'Brien, Dementia, 4th Edition, →ISBN, page xxiii:

     Overlap between chapters is a difficult issue and while we have exercised the editorial Tippex to the best of our ability, some duplication remains.

   • 2014, Rob Steen, Floodlights and Touchlines: A History of Spectator Sport, →ISBN, page 238:

     And all without a safety net, second take, a stroke of Tippex, an editor or producer who knows all the knobs to press, and when, to keep one's shortcomings from wider exposure.

2. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A particular brand of correction tape, or correction tape in general.

Translations

brand of correction fluid

• Afrikaans: flaterwater
• French: tipex (fr) m
• Polish: korektor (pl) m
• Spanish: típex (es) m
• Swedish: Tipp-Ex (sv), tippex (sv) c

Verb

Tippex (third-person singular simple present Tippexes, present participle Tippexing, simple past and past participle Tippexed)

1. (transitive) To delete using correction fluid.
   • 2004, Mark Stein, Black British Literature: Novels of Transformation, →ISBN, page 95:

     Lara also ends on an imminent return to “my island—the 'Great' Tippexed out of it,” with the lines: “It is time to leave./ Back to London, across international time zones, I step out of Heathrow and into my future.”

   • 2005, Belinda Jones, The Paradise Room, →ISBN, page 59:

     Then, literally out of the blue, it appears as though someone has Tippexed a freehand circle on the surface of the water and splashed a little bleach and blue curaçao within the outline.

   • 2011, Andy Kind, Stand Up and Deliver: A Nervous Rookie on the Comedy Circuit, →ISBN:

     I also Tippexed out the swear-words that I'd scrawled over the Tippexed-out November gigs.