Other forms: models, modeling, modeled, modelling, modelled
A model is a small copy of something larger — a model aeroplane, a model of the new building. From that come most of the other senses, and they are worth keeping in one hand because there are a lot of them.
A person who displays clothes is a model, and that is the sense a learner usually meets first. A model in science or economics is a simplified description used to work things out — a climate model, an economic model — and it is a copy in exactly the same way the aeroplane is. A model of a car is the version: which model is it? And as an adjective, model means exemplary: a model student, a model prison. The verb splits: to model clothes is to wear them for show, and to model a system is to build a simplified copy of it.
1nounmodelA person whose job is to wear clothes so that people can see them.
“The model walked the length of the room and turned.”
synonyms: mannequin
2nounsmallA small copy of something.
“He built a model of the bridge out of matchsticks.”
3noundescriptionA simplified description used to understand or predict something.
“The model predicted the flood two days ahead.”
4nounparticularA particular version or design of a product.
“This model has been discontinued.”
5adjectiveregardedRegarded as an example worth copying.
“He was a model pupil for exactly one term.”
6verbbuildTo build a simplified version of something in order to study it.
“They modelled the traffic before widening the road.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
model is a representation or example.
Italian modello came from Latin modulus, a small measure — the diminutive of modus, a measure or manner. The same root gives module, modest and mould. A model has always been the small measured version of the real thing.
Middle French
modelle
English, today
model
Built from
Borrowed from Middle French modelle. From Middle French modelle, from roa-oit modello, from Vulgar Latin modellus, diminutive form of modulus (“measure, standard”), diminutive of modus (“measure”); see mode, and compare module, modulus, mould, mold.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA