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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Epitome \E*pit"o*me\, noun; pl. {Epitomes}. [L., fr. Gr. ? a surface incision, also, and abridgment, fr. ? to cut into, cut short; 'epi' upon + te'mnein to cut: cf. F. ['e]pitome. See {Tome}.]
1. A work in which the contents of a former work are reduced within a smaller space by curtailment and condensation; a brief summary; an abridgement.
[An] epitome of the contents of a very large book. --Sydney Smith.
2. A compact or condensed representation of anything; something possessing conspicuously or to a high degree the qualities of a class. [1913 Webster +PJC]
An epitome of English fashionable life. --Carlyle.
A man so various that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome. --Dryden.
Syn: Abridgement; compendium; compend; abstract; synopsis; abbreviature. See {Abridgment}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
epitome
noun
1: a standard or typical example; "he is the prototype of good breeding"; "he provided America with an image of the good father" [syn: {prototype}, {paradigm}, {image}]
2: a brief abstract (as of an article or book)
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
84 Moby Thesaurus words for "epitome": abbreviation, abbreviature, abrege, abridgement, abridgment, abstract, antetype, antitype, apocope, archetype, biotype, breviary, brief, capsule, classic example, compend, compendium, compression, condensation, condensed version, conspectus, contraction, criterion, curtailment, digest, draft, elision, ellipsis, embodiment, essence, exemplar, foreshortening, fugleman, fugler, genotype, head, imitatee, last word, lead, mirror, model, original, outline, overview, pandect, paradigm, pattern, personification, precedent, precis, prototype, quintessence, recap, recapitulation, reduction, representative, resume, retrenchment, review, rubric, rule, shortened version, shortening, skeleton, sketch, standard, sum, summary, summation, summing-up, survey, syllabus, syncope, synopsis, telescoping, thumbnail sketch, topical outline, truncation, type, type species, type specimen, typical example, ultimate, urtext
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