prototype

UK/ˈpɹəʊtətaɪp/US/ˈpɹoʊtəˌtaɪp/

nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #4,575 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: prototypes

A prototype is an early working version made to test an idea. Build a prototype, a working prototype, the first prototype.

It exists to be learned from and thrown away, which is why making it too polished defeats the purpose. In psychology a prototype is the most typical member of a category — a robin is a prototype bird. Note the Greek protos, first.

Definitions of prototype

1nounprototypeAn early working version made to test an idea.B2+
“The engineers tested the prototype of the new car on a race track.”

prototype is an early version.

Where it comes from

Greek prototypos means first formed, from protos, first, plus typos, a model or impression.

Proto-Indo-European
*(s)tewp- — to push; to stick
Ancient Greek
πρωτότυπος — original; prototype
Latin
prototypon
French
prototype
English, today
prototype

Built from

πρωτο- · Ancient Greek — first
πρῶτος · Ancient Greek — first; earliest
τῠ́πος · Ancient Greek — blow, pressing; sort, type
τύπτω · Ancient Greek — to beat, strike

From French prototype or Latin prototypon, from Ancient Greek πρωτότυπος (“original; prototype”), from πρωτο- (“first”) (from πρῶτος (“first; earliest”)) + τῠ́πος (“blow, pressing; sort, type”) (from τύπτω (“to beat, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)tewp- (“to push; to stick”)). The word is analysable as proto + type.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Marketing & Advertising

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prototype in the wild

Prototype-based programming is a style of object-oriented programming in which behavior reuse (known as inheritance) is performed via a process of reusing existing objects that serve as prototypes.
Prototype-based programming
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process.
Prototype
A prototype is generally used to evaluate a new design to enhance precision by system analysts and users.
Prototype
A "production-intent" prototype, as opposed to a concept vehicle, serves this purpose.
Concept car
In this prototype theory, any given concept in any given language has a real world example that best represents this concept.
Prototype theory

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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