archetype-Archetyp: meaning, definitions and translations

An original model or type after which other similar things are patterned; a prototype: "'Frankenstein' . . . 'Dracula' . . . 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' . . . the archetypes that have influenced all subsequent horror stories” ( New York Times).

An ideal example of a type; quintessence: an archetype of the successful entrepreneur.

In Jungian psychology, an inherited pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived from the past collective experience and present in the individual unconscious.