pref., a. L. archi-, Gr. ἀρχι-: see ARCH-. This form of the prefix is retained in words taken in modern times from Gr. or L., directly or through mod.Fr., and in compounds formed on the model of these. Hence it is sometimes found in the adjectives, etc., belonging to substantives, which, from their earlier introduction, have themselves the form arch-, as archdeacon, archidiaconal, archbishop, archiepiscopal. Some words have both forms, as archi-presbyter, arch-presbyter.
1. = ARCH-; chief, principal, first in authority or order. a. in sbs., as ǁ archididascalus [latinized f. Gr. ἀρχι-διδάσκαλος], head-master of a school; whence archididascalian, -ine, a., of a head-master; † archigubernacy [L. archigubernus chief pilot], office of governor-in-chief; archimaster, see ARCHEMASTER; archi-typographer [mod.L. architypographus in Laudian Statutes], chief printer, superintendent of printing office. So † archibellows (nonce-wd.), archi-table. b. in adjs., as ARCHIDIACONAL, ARCHIEPISCOPAL, etc.; also archi-heretical, -prelatical, -supreme, -symbolical.
1599. James I., Βασιλικον Δωρον (1682), 69. Buchanan’s or Knoxe’s Chronicles … these *archibellouses of rebellion.
1844. Sir J. Stephen, Eccl. Biogr. (1850), II. 367. The responsible office of *Archididascalus.
1865. H. Staunton, Grt. Schools Eng., Westm., ii. 133. Two Masters, styled respectively Archididascalus and Hypodidascalus.
1811. Parr, Wks., 1828, VII. 440. The long exercise of petty, *Archididascalian authority.
1881. Athenæum, 15 Jan., 93/2. Beneath the clerical and *archididascaline roof.
1665. Surv. Aff. Netherl., 231. They did that at the Sea by an *Archigubernacy, or chief Governour and Admiral.
1721. Bailey, *Archiheretical, false in the highest and most dangerous degree.
1637. Bastwick, Ld. Bishops, i. A iiij. *Archiprelaticall Iurisdiction is grounded upon Canon and Positive Law.
1813. G. Edwards, Meas. True Policy, 63. Arranged under the Supreme Administrative, as *archisupreme.
1660. Jer. Taylor, Worthy Commun., i. § 21. The Divinest and *Archisymbolical feast.
1842. Mrs. Gore, Fascin., 48. The pedigree to be deposited upon the *architable of the king.
a. 1672. Wood, Life (1848), 172, note. Dr. Fell … would not suffer him to execute the place of *architypographer ‘as being unfit for it, because he was not a person of sobriety.’
2. In Biol. and Anthrop., meaning ‘archetypal’ or ‘primitive’: as archiblast, term applied by some to the epiblast; archinephron, the primitive kidney, whence archinephric a.; archipterygium, the primitive fin or wing, whence archipterygian a. Also archilithic, archizoic: see ARCHÆO-.
1876. trans. Wagner’s Gen. Pathol., 462. The archiblast embraces all tissues.
1882. Athenæum, 14 Jan., 60/2. In Apus the two pairs of antennæ are not supplied by nerves from the archicerebrum.
1880. Huxley, Cray-Fish, iv. 211. The primitive alimentary apparatus or archenteron.
1878. Bell, Gegenbaur’s Comp. Anat., 603. The most anterior end of the archinephric duct.
1878. Green, Coal, iv. 146. The archipterygian type is not plainly visible in such a limb.
1879. trans. Haeckel’s Evol. Man, II. xv. 9. The Primordial, Archizoic, or Archilithic Epoch.
