Archetype, n.
Etymology: [L. archetypum, Gr. archétype. See Arch-, pref.]
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. (Coinage)
The standard weight or coin by which others are adjusted.
3. (Biol.)
1 more senses
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.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for archetype; he lists it under example, idea, ideal, model.
Where he writes about it:
An example, however, may be more than a sample or specimen of any class; it may be the very archetype or prototype to which the whole class must conform, as when Christ is spoken of as being an example or leaving an example for his disciples. — from example
The word signified in early philosophical use the archetype or primal image which the Platonic philosophy supposed to be the model or pattern that existing objects imperfectly embody. — from idea
The archetype is the primal form, actual or imaginary, according to which any existing thing is constructed; the prototype has or has had actual existence; in the derived sense, as in metrology, a prototype may not be the original form, but one having equal authority with that as a standard. — from ideal
Synonyms
exampleideaidealmodelapprehensionbeliefconceitconceptconceptioncopydesignensampleexemplarexemplificationfacsimilefancyfantasyimageimaginationimitationimpressionjudgmentmoldnotionopinionoriginalpatternplanprecedentprototypepurposerepresentationsamplesentimentspecimenstandardsuppositiontheorythoughttypewarning