Meaning

adjective worthy of imitation

adjective being or serving as an illustration of a type

adjective serving to warn

originFrom Middle French exemplaire (“exemplary; a copy, facsimile; an example; a sample, specimen”), from Latin exemplāris (“exemplary; a copy, facsimile”), from exemplum (“an example; a sample; a copy or transcript”). By surface analysis, example + -ary. Doublet of exemplar. First use as a noun appears c. 1425, as an adjective, c. 1507.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0