Dictionary

exemplum en · NOUN

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin exemplum. Doublet of example and sample.

Meanings

1. An example.
   • In addition, if study of remodeled versus active lesions, or lesions of different grades of severity was germane to a work, photographs of exempla should be presented so readers can evaluate them. 2023, Simon Mays, “The Macroscopic Study of Human Skeletal Paleopathology” (chapter 2), in The Routledge Handbook of Paleopathology, Routledge, →DOI, →ISBN, page 32:
2. (literary, rhetoric) A story demonstrating a moral point; a parable.
   • In the Middle Ages preachers had enlivened their sermons with exempla – edifying tales of judgements upon sinners and mercies shown to the pious. 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 90:

Forms

Relateds

exemplum virtutis