pattern

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A repeated decorative design of shapes, lines, or colours.

   The wallpaper had a pretty floral pattern.

2. 2
   noun

   A regular way in which something happens or is done.

   The doctor noticed a pattern in the patient's headaches.

3. 3
   noun

   A model or example used as a guide to copy or imitate.

   The new constitution provided a pattern for many other republics.

4. 4
   verb

   To make or shape something by following an example or model.

   The army was patterned after the French system.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Pattern was originally the same word as patron, which came through French from Latin patronus, “protector” or “defender,” and ultimately from pater, “father.” The sense of pattern developed from the idea of a patron serving as an example to copy. A 16th-century transposition of the vowel and r produced the distinct form pattern, and by about 1700 the two forms had developed separate uses.

From earlier patten, paterne, from Middle English patron (“patron; example”), from Old French patron, from Medieval Latin patrōnus (“patron”). Doublet of padrone, patron, Patronus, and patroon.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary