• Archetype

    Pronunciation

    • UK IPA: /ˈɑːkɪtaɪp/
    • US IPA: /ˈɑɹkɪtaɪp/

    Origin

    From Old French architipe (French archétype), from Latin archetypum, from Ancient Greek ἀρχέτυπον (arkhetupon, "pattern, model") neuter of ἀρχέτυπος (arkhetupos, "first-moulded"), from ἀρχή (arkhē, "first, origin ") + τύπος (typos, "sort, type, press").

    Full definition of archetype

    Noun

    archetype

    (plural archetypes)
    1. An original model of which all other similar persons, objects, or concepts are merely derivative, copied, patterned, or emulated; a prototype
    2. (literature) A character, story, or object that is based on a known character, story, or object.
    3. An ideal example of something; a quintessence.
    4. (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.

    Usage notes

    Traditionally archetype refers to the model upon which something is based, but it has also come to mean an example of a personality archetype, particularly a fictional character in a story based on a well-established personality model. In this fashion, a character based on the Jesus archetype might be referred to as a "Jesus archetype". See eponym for a similar usage conflict.

    Synonyms

    Verb

    1. To depict as, model using or otherwise associate a subject or object with an archetype.
      • 2003 , October 31 , Clyde Haberman , NYC; Not Poifect, Dem Movies Of Brooklyn , His collaborator was Robert Singer, a professor of English and film studies at Kingsborough Community College, who lamented this week that he and his fellow Brooklynites "have been archetyped to death."----
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