Architype

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A quintessential model that illustrates the typical features of a larger class
2. An original design or form that encapsulates the fundamental qualities of a specific category
3. A representative example that embodies the defining characteristics of a particular genre or type

Etymology: The spelling "architype" is an obsolete variant of "archetype," and the word's roots are Greek: "arkhetupon" meant "model" or "pattern," and it was built from "arkhē," "beginning, origin," and "tupos," "blow, impression, sort." Put together, the idea is something first struck or moulded, the original from which copies are made, like a die that stamps out coins. The word passed into Latin as "archetypum," meaning "original," and then into Old French as "archetipe," before English adopted it. The Greek "tupos" is the same element found in "type," so an archetype is literally a first type, the stamp from which later impressions are taken. Over time the sense moved from a physical original to an abstract one: a basic model that embodies the essential qualities of a whole category. That is the meaning the spelling "architype" carried in the forms you have listed.

Synonyms: prototype, model, standard

Antonyms: atypical, variant