— prototypal, prototypical /proh'teuh tip"i keuhl/ , prototypic , adj. — prototypically , adv.
/proh"teuh tuyp'/ , n. , v. prototyped, prototyping .
n.
1. the original or model on which something is based or formed.
2. someone or something that serves to illustrate the typical qualities of a class; model; exemplar: She is the prototype of a student activist.
3. something analogous to another thing of a later period: a Renaissance prototype of our modern public housing.
4. Biol. an archetype; a primitive form regarded as the basis of a group.
v.t.
5. to create the prototype or an experimental model of: to prototype a solar-power car.
[ 1595-1605; prototypon protótypon, n. use of neut. of protótypos original. See PROTO-, TYPE ]
Syn. 1. pattern.