prototype: Meaning and Definition of

pro•to•type

1. the original or model on which something is based or formed.
2. someone or something that serves to illustrate the typical qualities of a class; model; exemplar: She is the prototype of a student activist.
3. something analogous to another thing of a later period: a Renaissance prototype of our modern public housing.
4. an archetype; a primitive form regarded as the basis of a group.

1. to create the prototype or an experimental model of: to prototype a solar-power car.