Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ARCH'E-TYPE, n. [Gr. αρχετυπον; αρχη, beginning, and τυπος, 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. – Watts.
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. – Encyc.