exemplar

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English exemplar, also exaumplere,^[2] partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman exemplair, also essamplaire, and Middle French exemplaire,^[3][2] and partly directly borrowed from Latin exemplar (“typical instance, model, archetype, copy”),^[3][2] from exemplum (“copy, pattern, model”), the source of example.^[3][4][5] Several dictionaries give the Latin step as Late Latin exemplārium,^{[4][6][5][7][8]} which Merriam-Webster Unabridged calls an alteration of exemplar.^[2] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1113–19, with senses that include model, paragon, account and copy of a book.^[9] Skeat and Weekley note that the English word was respelled after the Latin form.^[10][11] Compare Spanish ejemplar, Italian esemplare, German Exemplar and Dutch exemplaar.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A pattern on which something is made, and an individual copy of a text: both before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[3] Etymonline starts in the late 14th century, with "the original model of the universe in the mind of God".^[4]

Semantic evolution

French and Latin already used the word for a report, a copy of a book, a paragon or an archetype.^[3][9] The philosophical sense, an eternal pattern of which particular things are imperfect copies, is recorded before 1398, in Trevisa.^[3] The moral sense followed: a person's conduct as something to imitate before 1393, in Gower, and a person worthy of imitation before 1439, in Lydgate.^[3] Etymonline dates "model of virtue" to the mid 15th century.^[4] From the same century it could also be a case cited to illustrate a rule, and someone or something typical of a class.^[3] Hoad dates the sense "typical specimen" only to the 17th century.^[5] Johnson (1755) gave it as a pattern to be imitated, and quoted Raleigh: "The idea and exemplar of the world was first in God".^[12] An adjective exemplar, from the Latin exemplāris and French, is recorded from before 1460,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Shorter Oxford treat it as obsolete beside exemplary.^[2][7]

Timeline

• before 1382 – a pattern for making something (obsolete by 1892); a copy of a text.^[3]
• before 1393 – a person's conduct as an object of imitation.^[3]
• before 1398 – an abstract, eternally existing archetype.^[3]
• before 1439 – a person worthy of imitation.^[3]
• c. 1450 – a case cited to illustrate a rule.^[3]
• before 1460 – adjective, archetypal.^[3]
• c. 1475 – an embodiment of a quality or type.^[3]
• 1484 – a moral guide, in Caxton (obsolete).^[3]
• c. 1487 – in needlework, a piece showing stitches and patterns to follow.^[3]
• 1585 – adjective, setting a good example.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or thing that serves as a model worth imitating: She became an exemplar of civic courage for her generation.^[2][13][3]
2. A typical specimen or instance of a class: The chapel is an exemplar of the local style.^[2][13][3]
3. A copy of a book or text, especially a manuscript from which other copies were made.^[2][13][3]
4. (philosophy) An archetype of which particular things are imperfect copies.^[2][3]
5. A case cited to illustrate a statement or rule.^[3][7]
6. (needlework, historical) A piece showing stitches and patterns to follow; a sampler.^[3]
7. (obsolete, 1382–1892) A prototype or pattern according to which something is made.^[3][7]

Adjective

1. (philosophy) Existing as an archetype.^[3]
2. (obsolete) Exemplary.^[2][7]

Related words

• example
• exemplary
• exemplify
• sampler

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins