archetype

Meanings

1. An original model of which all other similar concepts, objects, or persons are merely copied, derivative, emulated, or patterned.
2. An ideal example of something; a quintessence.
3. A character, object, or story that is based on a known character, object, or story.
4. According to Swiss psychologist Carl Jung: a universal pattern of thought, present in an individual's unconscious, inherited from the past collective experience of humanity.
5. A protograph (“original manuscript of a text from which all further copies derive”).

1. To depict as, model using, or otherwise associate an object or subject with an archetype.

Etymology

From Old French architipe (modern French archétype), from Latin archetypum (“original”), from Ancient Greek ἀρχέτυπον (arkhétupon, “model, pattern”), the neuter form of ἀρχέτυπος (arkhétupos, “first-moulded”), from ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “beginning, origin”) (from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to begin; to lead, rule”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin; to command, rule”)) + τῠ́πος (tŭ́pos, “blow, pressing; sort, type”) (from τύπτω (túptō, “to beat, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- (“to push; to stick”)).