modèle

from Latin popular modellus, variant of classical Latin modulus, diminutive of modus ('manner' or 'mode'). The word 'model' would be a borrowing from the Italian modello of the 16th century. It was then used in the sense of a miniature representation of what would be built on a larger scale (in the sense of 'scale model' or 'prototype'). Over the following centuries, it took on the meaning of 'reference object', then 'ideal to imitate'. The technical-scientific use of the term would date only from the 1950s, but its use can be found in Paul Valery (1894) in his 'Introduction to the Method of Leonardo da Vinci'.