Also 7–8 archi-, 7–9 arch-. [ad. L. archetypum, a. Gr. ἀρχέτυπον, f. ἀρχε- = ἀρχι- first + τύπος impress, stamp, type.]
1. The original pattern or model from which copies are made; a prototype.
[1599. Thynne, Animadv., 42. The originall or fyrste archetypum of any thinge.]
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. 27. Let vs seeke the dignitie of knowledge in the Arch-tipe or first plat-forme, which is in the attributes and acts of God.
1690. Locke, Hum. Underst., II. xxx. (1695), 205. By real Ideas, I mean such as have a Foundation in Nature; such as have a Conformity … with their Archetypes.
1795. Mason, Ch. Music, i. 54. There was little if any Music printed … that could serve as an Architype.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 17. The House of Commons, the archetype of all the representative assemblies which now meet.
1875. Scrivener, Lect. Gk. Test., 9. These [manuscripts] were made the archetypes of a host of others.
2. spec. a. in Minting. A coin of standard weight, by which others are adjusted. ? Obs.
b. in Compar. Anat. An assumed ideal pattern of the fundamental structure of each great division of organized beings, of which the various species are considered as modifications.
1849. Murchison, Siluria, xx. 477. Approaching to the vertebrated archetype.
1854. Owen, in Orr’s Circ. Sc., Org. Nat., I. 169. The archetype vertebrate skeleton.
