An original model of which all other similar concepts, objects, or persons are merely copied, derivative, emulated, or patterned; a prototype.
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 ideal example of something; a quintessence.
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.
An example serving as the model for such a pattern.
A pattern, a way of doing something, especially (now often derogatory) a pattern of thought, a system of beliefs, a conceptual framework.
A set of all forms which contain a common element, especially the set of all inflectional forms of a word or a particular grammatical category.