archetype

  1. Noun.  An original model of which all other similar persons, objects, or concepts are merely derivative, copied, patterned, or emulated; a prototype.
  2. Noun.  (context, literature) A character, story, or object that is based on a known character, story, or object.
  3. Noun.  An ideal example of something; a quintessence.
  4. Noun.  (context, psychology) According to the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, a universal pattern of thought, present in an individual's unconscious, inherited from the past collective experience of humanity.
  5. Verb.  To depict as, model using or otherwise associate a subject or object with an archetype.

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This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.