Archetype

’ARCHETYPE, n. [Gr. beginning, and form.]

1. The original pattern or model of a work; or the model from which a thing is made; as, a tree is the archetype or pattern of our idea of that tree.

2. Among minters, the standard weight, by which others are adjusted.

3. Among Platonists, the archetypal world is the world as it existed in the idea of God, before the creation.