1. typical specimen: a typical, ideal, or classic example of something It was described as an archetype of the interior design of the period.
2. original model: something that serves as the model or pattern for other things of the same type The movie was one of the archetypes of the American Western.
3. psychoanalysis image from collective unconscious: in Jungian psychology, an inherited memory represented in the mind by a universal symbol and observed in dreams and myths
4. arts recurring symbol: an image or symbol that is used repeatedly in art or literature
[Mid-16th century. Via Latin archetypum< Greek arkhetupon "first molded as a model" < arkhe- "first, chief" + tupon "mold, model"]
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