prototype
UK /ˈpɹəʊtətaɪp/ · US /ˈpɹoʊtəˌtaɪp/ noun, verb
Forms prototypes prototyping prototyped
- noun An original form or object which is a basis for other forms or objects (particularly manufactured items), or for its generalizations and models.
- noun An early sample or model built to test a concept or process. “The prototype had loose wires and rough edges, but it worked.”
- noun (computing) A declaration of a function that specifies the name, return type, and parameters, but none of the body or actual code.
- noun (semantics) An instance of a category or a concept that combines its most representative attributes. “A robin is a prototype of a bird; a penguin is not.”
- noun (motor racing) A type of race car, a racing sports car not based on a production car. A 4-wheeled cockpit-seating car built especially for racing on sports car circuits, that does not use the silhouette related to a consumer road car.
- verb (transitive) To create a prototype of.
- verb (transitive, rare) To imitate or emulate.
Synonyms
archetype exemplar racing prototype sports prototype prototype racecar paradigm epitome image
Etymology
From French prototype or Late Latin prototypon, from Ancient Greek πρωτότυπος (prōtótupos, “original; prototype”), from πρωτο- (prōto-, “first”) (from πρῶτος (prôtos, “first; earliest”)) + τῠ́πος (tŭ́pos, “blow, pressing; sort, type”) (from τύπτω (túptō, “to beat, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- (“to push; to stick”)). The word is analysable as proto- + -type.
Webster’s 1913
- noun An original or model after which anything is copied; the pattern of anything to be engraved, or otherwise copied, cast, or the like; a primary form; exemplar; archetype.
Etymology [F., from L. prototypus original, primitive, Gr. Proto-, and Type]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “prototype”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details