[ 'α:kɪtʌɪp ]
■ noun
1》 a very typical example.
2》 an original model.
3》 Psychoanalysis (in Jungian theory) a primitive mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors and supposed to be present in the collective unconscious.
4》 a recurrent motif in literature or art.
Derivatives
archetypal adjective
archetypally adverb
archetypical adjective
archetypically adverb
Origin
C16: via L. from Gk arkhetupon 'something moulded first as a model', from arkhe- 'primitive' + tupos 'a model'.