Pattern, n.
Etymology: [OE. patron, F. patron, a patron, also, a pattern. See Patron.]
1. Anything proposed for imitation; an archetype; an exemplar; that which is to be, or is worthy to be, copied or imitated; as, a pattern of a machine. I will be the pattern of all patience. Shak.
2. A part showing the figure or quality of the whole; a specimen; a sample; an example; an instance. He compares the pattern with the whole piece. Swift.
3. Stuff sufficient for a garment; as, a dress pattern.
4. Figure or style of decoration; design; as, wall paper of a beautiful pattern.
4 more senses
5. Something made after a model; a copy. Shak. The patterns of things in the heavens. Heb. ix. 23.
6. Anything cut or formed to serve as a guide to cutting or forming objects; as, a dressmaker's pattern.
7. (Founding)
A full-sized model around which a mold of sand is made, to receive the melted metal. It is usually made of wood and in several parts, so as to be removed from the mold without injuring it. Pattern box, chain, or cylinder (Figure Weaving), devices, in a loom, for presenting several shuttles to the picker in the proper succession for forming the figure. -- Pattern card. (a) A set of samples on a card. (b) (Weaving) One of the perforated cards in a Jacquard apparatus. -- Pattern reader, one who arranges textile patterns. -- Pattern wheel (Horology), a count-wheel.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Pattern, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Patterned; p. pr. & vb. n. Patterning.]
1. To make or design (anything) by, from, or after, something that serves as a pattern; to copy; to model; to imitate. Milton. [A temple] patterned from that which Adam reared in Paradise. Sir T. Herbert.
2. To serve as an example for; also, to parallel. To pattern after, to imitate; to follow.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for pattern; he lists it under example, idea, ideal, model, precedent.
Where he writes about it:
From its original sense of sample or specimen (L. exemplum) example derives the seemingly contradictory meanings, on the one hand of a pattern or model, and on the other hand of a warning--a sample or specimen of what is to be followed, or of what is to be shunned. — from example
Example comes nearer to the possible freedom of the model than to the necessary exactness of the pattern; often we can not, in a given case, exactly imitate the best example, but only adapt its teachings to altered circumstances. — 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
A pattern is always, in modern use, that which is to be copied; a model may be either the thing to be copied or the copy that has been made from it; as, the models in the Patent Office. — from model
A pattern is commonly superficial; a model is usually in relief. — from model
A pattern must be closely followed in its minutest particulars by a faithful copyist; a model may allow a great degree of freedom. — from model