Overprint

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈəʊvə(ɹ)ˌpɹɪnt/

Definitions

1. To execute a printing process that layers new designs above prior images or text, possibly masking elements beneath them
2. To apply a new layer of ink over previously printed material, thereby modifying or enhancing the visuals beneath
3. To add new printing on top of an already printed surface, creating combined imagery or text

Etymology: Overprint is a straightforward compound: the prefix "over-" joined to "print". The prefix comes from Old English "ofer", meaning "above" or "across", a word that has kept its basic sense of "on top of" for more than a thousand years. The base word "print" has a more tangled path. It was borrowed into Middle English as "emprenten", from Anglo-Norman "empreinte" style forms, and it meant to press a mark into something. Its own ancestor, Latin "imprimere", literally meant "to press into" or "to press upon", built from "in-" and "premere", "to press". The Latin verb was a dead end for English speakers, but the notion of pressing a mark onto a surface survived in the trade. Together the two parts give an exact picture of the process: an image is pressed on top of one already there. Printers used the term to describe a second impression laid over an earlier one, and the word has kept that literal, mechanical sense ever since.

Synonyms: print over, imprint, apply, layer, superimpose