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proto-

  1. a combining form meaning “first,” “foremost,” “earliest form of,” used in the formation of compound words ( protomartyr; protolithic; protoplasm ), specialized in chemical terminology to denote the first of a series of compounds, or the one containing the minimum amount of an element.


proto-

combining_form

  1. indicating the first in time, order, or rank

    protomartyr

  2. primitive, ancestral, or original

    prototype

  3. indicating the reconstructed earliest stage of a language

    Proto-Germanic

  4. indicating the first in a series of chemical compounds

    protoxide

  5. indicating the parent of a chemical compound or an element

    protactinium

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of proto-1

< Greek, combining form representing prôtos first, superlative formed from pró; pro- 2
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Word History and Origins

Origin of proto-1

from Greek prōtos first, from pro before; see pro- ²
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Example Sentences

There are also funding and logistical imperatives for ISIS to pursue the proto-state strategy.

No one was using Final Cut, so it was this Proto Editing program.

Such proto-tweets allowed some full-time gossips to work as compilers of the “trending” topics of the day.

There is "water" in English, "wasser" in German, "vatten" in Swedish, all cognates emanating from "wator" in proto-German.

In the current proto-populist climate, complicated could actually win for a change.

The influence of the leisure class is not consistently for or against the rehabilitation of this proto-anthropoid human nature.

The oxygen of the atmosphere also unites with certain minerals, such as the proto-salts of iron, and converts them into peroxides.

As far as he knew, there was no such thing as a proto-man myth in wide currency around the galaxy.

Remember this, though: I cannot tell you what to expect when you reach the original home of proto-man.

Or must proto-man, like humans everywhere, fall victim to subjective time if objective time did not matter for him?

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protiumprotoactinium