Forms: 4–5 exemplaire, -ayre, 5–6 exemplare, 5– exemplar. [ME. exemplaire, a. OF. exemplaire: see EXAMPLAR. The mod. form is partly a descendant of this, partly an adoption of L. exemplar, -āre, sb., orig. neut. of exemplāris adj.: see next.]
1. A person or thing that serves as a model for imitation; an example. Formerly also, † a pattern for work: cf. SAMPLER.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 5. In this tyme … thexemplares of acciones spectable scholde not be patent.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xi. (1890), 41. [Nature] hathe produced hym [Aeneas] for to make one fayer chief werke to thexemplayre of alle other.
1530. Palsgr., 157. Vne exemple, an exemplar for a woman to worke by.
1549. Latimer, Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 109. Christ is the … patrone and the exemplar, that all preachers oughte to folowe.
1694. Pomfret, Poems, Death Q. Mary, 128. Him for her high exemplar she design’d.
1744. Epitaph, in Brand, Hist. Newcastle (1789), I. 676. His Master’s presence will reward … his virtues by a more intimate converse with the great Exemplar.
1793. T. Maurice, Ind. Antiq. (1805), I. 105. It is impossible for the artist to deviate from the exemplar before him.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 25. The Republic is … the pattern of all other states and the exemplar of human life.
† b. = EXAMPLE 3 b. Obs. rare–1.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 31. Fulfilled of slouthes exemplaire There is yet one his secretaire, And he is cleped negligence.
2. The model, pattern or original after which something is made; an archetype whether real or ideal.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, ii. § 1. 24 (J.). The Idea and exemplar of the world was first in God.
1631. Raleigh’s Ghost, 183. Christ was like to Moses, as … the Exemplar, or Sample [is] to the image.
1725. Watts, Logick, I. iii. § 3. 55–6. Real Ideas are such as … have real Objects, or Exemplars, actually existing.
1829. Jas. Mill, Hum. Mind (1869), I. viii. 251. The external exemplars according to which individual things were made.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., I. 269. A spiritual world, which was the archetype and exemplar of the visible.
3. An instance, example; a parallel instance, a parallel.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. i. 26. It doth give me not only an undeniable evidence, but an exemplar in analogy and explication.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, I. vi. Those frivolous productions of which Luigi Pulci has furnished the most peccant exemplar.
1866. H. Phillips, Amer. Paper Curr., II. 11. Modern history is not wanting in exemplars.
4. A typical instance; a type, specimen (of a class); a typical embodiment or personification (of a quality, system, etc.).
1656. Sanderson, Serm. (1689), 131. Caius Verres (whom … there is scarce to be found such another complete Exemplar of a wicked Magistrate).
c. 1676. South, Serm. Worldly Wisd. (1715), I. 340. Cromwell … the … grand Exemplar of Hypocrisy.
1744. Harris, Three Treat., III. II. (1765), 216. An Offer to paint them a Helen, as a Model and Exemplar of the most exquisite Beauty.
1812. Woodhouse, Astron., xxiv. 258. A kind of sample and exemplar of almost all Astronomical processes.
1837. Thirlwall, Greece, IV. xxxv. 361. Sisyphus, the legendary exemplar of cunning.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. xvii. 323. They are the true exemplars of the grasping and worldly clergy of all ages.
1868. Helps, Realmah, xii. (1876), 309. The friendship between a dog and a man is the highest form and exemplar of friendship.
5. A ‘copy’ of a book, etc.
1539. Taverner, Bible, Dedic. To amend ye same [default], according to the true exemplars.
1570. Billingsley, Euclid, XV. Introd. 431. In the Greke exemplars are found in this 15. booke only 5 propositions.
1665. Phil. Trans., I. 102. His second Tome, whereof he lately presented some Exemplars to his Friends.
1864. Hazlitt, E. P. Poetry, IV. 1. Many pamphlets … remain to us only in a single exemplar.
1875. Scrivener, Lect. Grk. Test., i. 4. All exemplars of the same edition resemble each other.
