Where does “exemplar” come from?
Exemplar comes from French exemplaire, from Latin exemplum, meaning a pattern or model to be imitated or avoided.
exemplar (English): Something fit to be imitated; an ideal, a model;...
Definitions
- Something fit to be imitated; an ideal, a model;...
Ancestry of “exemplar”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | exempler | — |
| 2 | Middle French | exemplaire | exemplary; a copy, facsimile; an example; a... |
| 3 | Old French | essamplaire | example; model; role model |
| 4 | Latin | exemplāris | exemplary |
| 5 | Latin | exemplum | a sample; an example; a warning example, lesson,... |
| 6 | Latin | eximō | to take out, take away, remove or extract |
| 7 | Latin | emo | I buy, purchase; I acquire, procure |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | emō | to buy, to purchase |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁em- | to take; to distribute |