And Now a Break for Some Dingbats

Today I learned that the font Zapf Dingbats existed before the Apple Laserwriter began to make it ubiquitous in 1985. It was released through the International Typeface Corporation in July 1978 and announced in its publication U&LC in June of that year.

Here's the opening spread that showed off many of the characters:


I also learned that Hermann Zapf did about 1,200 sketches of characters, which ITC winnowed to 300 for the 1978 typeface and organized into three series. Apple, however, released only 204 in the LaserWriter font.

I wonder which characters were omitted? Probably some of the repetitive boxed and circled numbers or mirrored characters.

These wonderings and new-found facts reminded me that I probably learned the term "dingbat" from Archie Bunker's derisive use of it when he addressed his wife Edith on All in the Family, and prompted me to ponder where the word comes from. Did the typographic term precede the insult, or vice versa?

According to etymonline.com, it's American English and goes back to 1838,

apparently originally the name of some kind of alcoholic drink, of unknown origin. It has joined that class of words (such as dingus, doohickey, gadget, gizmo, thingumabob) which are conjured up to supply names for items whose proper names are unknown or not recollected. Used at various periods for "money," "a professional tramp," "a muffin," "male genitalia," "a Chinese," "an Italian," "a woman who is neither your sister nor your mother," and "a foolish person in authority." Popularized in sense of "foolish person" by U.S. TV show "All in the Family" (1971-79), though this usage dates from 1905. In typography, by 1912 as a printer's term for ornament used in headline or with illustrations.

So probably the typographic term by 1912 was related to the "doohickey" type of meaning. Though I suppose we can't rule out that it could have something to do with male genitalia.