Other forms: archetypes
An archetype is the original pattern that later examples follow. The archetype of the detective, an archetypal villain, fits the archetype.
In psychology it is Jung's term for the recurring figures he held were shared across all cultures, such as the hero and the shadow. In ordinary use it means the purest example rather than the first.
1nounarchetypeThe original pattern that later examples follow.
“The wicked stepmother is an archetype that appears in fairy tales all over the world.”
archetype is a pattern.
Greek archetypon means a model or pattern, from arche, first, plus typos, a mould.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂ergʰ- — to begin; to command, rule
Ancient Greek
ἀρχέτυπον — model, pattern
Latin
archetypum — original
Old French
architipe
English, today
archetype
Built from
From Old French architipe (modern French archétype), from Latin archetypum (“original”), from Ancient Greek ἀρχέτυπον (“model, pattern”), the neuter form of ἀρχέτυπος (“first-moulded”), from ἀρχή (“beginning, origin”) (from ἄρχω (“to begin; to lead, rule”), from Proto-Indo-European h₂ergʰ- (“to begin; to command, rule”)) + τῠ́πος (“blow, pressing; sort, type”) (from τύπτω (“to beat, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)tewp- (“to push; to stick”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA