An ideal example of something; a quintessence.
A character, object, or story that is based on a known character, object, or story.
A protograph (“original manuscript of a text from which all further copies derive”).
An original model of which all other similar concepts, objects, or persons are merely copied, derivative, emulated, or patterned; a prototype.
According to Swiss psychologist Carl Jung: a universal pattern of thought, present in an individual's unconscious, inherited from the past collective experience of humanity.
To depict as, model using, or otherwise associate an object or subject with an archetype.
A statement or an idea which is unproven, but is thought to be true; a guess.
A statement likely to be true based on available evidence, but which has not been formally proven.
A supposition based upon incomplete evidence; a hypothesis.
To infer on slight evidence; to guess at.
To guess; to venture an unproven idea.