a. [f. L. archetypum ARCHETYPE + -AL 1.] Of the nature of, or constituting, an archetype; of or pertaining to an archetype; primitive, original.
(In Platonic philosophy, archetypal is applied to ideas or forms of natural objects, held to have been present in the divine mind prior to creation, and still to exist, as cognizable by intellect, independently of the reality or ectypal form.)
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, Notes 146/1. The Archetypal seal, which we call the intellectuall world, is the very word of God, the Archetypall Paradigme.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Wks. 1721, III. 383. Our great, our sole, Archetypal High Priest.
1848. H. Rogers, Essays, I. vi. 287. Plato’s ‘archetypal ideas’ correspond to our ‘general notions’ as expressed by ‘general terms,’ and something more; that is, he believed in their real existence … external to any and to all minds.
1869. Farrar, Fam. Speech, ii. 41. Reconstruct extinct and archetypal forms of language.
