n.
a certain person who embodies all the things you like the least about yourself—a seeming caricature of your worst tendencies—which leaves you feeling repulsed and fascinated in equal measure, having stumbled upon a role model of exactly the kind of person you never want to be.
Latin malus, bad + typus, a kind of sculptor’s mold. A mold is essentially a negative image of the object you want to sculpt—so if you’re trying to shape yourself, perhaps a good first step is to scoop away the negative space. Pronounced “mal-uh-tahyp.”