Lexic.us

Definition of Archetype

1. Noun. Something that serves as a model or a basis for making copies. "This painting is a copy of the original"

Definition of Archetype

1. n. The original pattern or model of a work; or the model from which a thing is made or formed.

Definition of Archetype

1. Noun. An original model of which all other similar persons, objects, or concepts are merely derivative, copied, patterned, or emulated; a prototype ¹

2. Noun. (context: literature) A character, story, or object that is based on a known character, story, or object. ¹

3. Noun. An ideal example of something; a quintessence. ¹

4. Noun. (context: psychology) According to the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, a universal pattern of thought, present in an individual's unconscious, inherited from the past collective experience of humanity. ¹

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

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Archetype

1. [n -S]

Medical Definition of Archetype

1. 1. The original pattern or model of a work; or the model from which a thing is made or formed. "The House of Commons, the archetype of all the representative assemblies which now meet." (Macaulay) "Types and shadows of that glorious archetype that was to come into the world." (South) 2. The standard weight or coin by which others are adjusted. 3. The plan or fundamental structure on which a natural group of animals or plants or their systems of organs are assumed to have been constructed; as, the vertebrate archetype. Origin: L. Archetypum, Gr, fr. Stamped first and as model; + stamp, figure, pattern, to strike: cf. F. Archetype. See Arch-, pref. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Archetype

Literary usage of Archetype

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Transactions by Cambridge Philological Society (1899)
"*archetype of Corpus Epinal 'English archetype of Erfurt i. Corpus Erfurt I. That Erfurt is not a direct copy of archetype II. (Sweet's " EE ") will be made ..."

2. An Introduction to Latin Textual Emendation: Based on the Text of Plautus by Wallace Martin Lindsay (1896)
"For this part of B seems to have been copied directly from that archetype, while all other MSS. and the first eight plays in B are copied from copies of the ..."

3. On the Anatomy of Vertebrates by Richard Owen (1866)
"21, of the archetype vertebrate skeleton. § 15. archetype skeleton.—In this scheme, which gives a side view of the series of segments or' vertebrae' of ..."

4. The Light of Nature Pursued by Abraham Tucker (1768)
"... continually from his eyes, his hands and his reflection, or he will make but bungling work. Nor is this archetype wanting except only for works of ..."

5. Studies in Old English by Hector Munro Chadwick (1899)
"archetype of Corpus Epinal *English archetype of Erfurt I. Corpus Erfurt i. That Erfurt is not a direct copy of archetype n. (Sweet's " EE ") will be made ..."

6. The Philosophical System of Antonio Rosmini-Serbati by Antonio Rosmini (1882)
"The science which describes the perfect arche- (o) Tele- typal man has not been written or even attempted, archetype and it cannot be worked out until all ..."

7. Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation by James McCosh, George Dickie (1856)
"MODIFICATIONS OF THE archetype MOLLUSC. Cephalopoda, or cuttle-fishes. These remarkable animals are usually placed in the foremost ranks of the molluscan ..."

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