tintype

English

A copy of a tintype of Corporal Nailer of the 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry. The original photograph was made between 1861 and 1865.

Etymology

From tin +‎ type.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɪntaɪp/

Noun

tintype (plural tintypes)

1. An early, remarkably durable form of photograph (technically a photographic negative), printed on a tin plate, then varnished.
   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.

   • 1913, Booth Tarkington, The Flirt, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 70:

     There were photographs everywhere: photographs framed and unframed; photographs large and photographs small, the fresh and the faded; tintypes, kodaks, “full lengths,” “cabinets,” groups—every type of photograph; […]

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, “Against the Day”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 885:

     They'll show you tintypes of the kids more often than not, hell, they love em chavalitos.

Derived terms

• not on your tintype

Verb

tintype (third-person singular simple present tintypes, present participle tintyping, simple past and past participle tintyped)

1. (transitive) To produce a tintype image of.