Dictionary

proto- en · X

Pronunciation

• /pɹoʊ.toʊ/ (US)
• [pɹoʊ.ɾoʊ] (US)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈpɹəʊ.təʊ/ (UK)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per-der.? Proto-Indo-European *per-der.? Proto-Indo-European *pér Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *próder. Ancient Greek πρό (pró) Ancient Greek -ᾰτος (-ătos) Ancient Greek πρῶτος (prôtos) Ancient Greek πρωτο- (prōto-)lbor. English proto- Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek πρωτο- (prōto-), combination form of πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”), superlative of πρό (pró, “before”).

Meanings

1. (morpheme) An early, primitive stage of development.
   • In many ways, both good and bad, he was a proto-Justin Bieber—a teenage dream to be bought and sold, with what would turn out to be very little regard for his own humanity. 2022 November 6, Emma Garland, “Aaron Carter was the millennium’s bubblegum bad boy – and the victim of a rapacious music industry”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 19 Apr 2023:
   • I had heard of Caturday when I wrote the piece, but I’d understood that it was a proto-lolcats practice that was different from the actual lolcats meme. 2007 July 16, Lev Grossman, “Lolcats Addendum: Where I Got the Story Wrong”, in TIME, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2016:
   • protophysics, protometal, protoword
2. (morpheme) Original, older.
   • protograph, protolacteal, prototype, protoplasm
3. (morpheme, numeral, ordinal) First in order; which stage is first.
   • protogynous, protandrous
4. (morpheme) Primary.
   • protoderm, protocneme
5. (morpheme) Most recent common ancestor (often hypothetical) of.
   • All Indo-European languages from Albanian to Zazaki are descended from Proto-Indo-European.
6. (morpheme) A minimal proportion of a particular substance when in a combination. See protosalt.
   • protoxide, protosulfide, protiodide
7. (morpheme) Relating to protons and/or positive charge.
   • protophilic, protolysis
8. (morpheme, obsolete) A proto-metal.
   • proto-calcium; proto-magnesium
9. (morpheme) Anterior.
   • prototroch, protoconid, protoconule

Forms

Coordinates

trito- · trit- · eteo- · tetart- · deuter- · deutero- · tetarto-

Deriveds

protocarbonate · Proto-Norse (in linguistics, proto-languages) · Proto-Oceanic (in linguistics, proto-languages) · Proto-Semitic (in linguistics, proto-languages) · Proto-Uralic (in linguistics, proto-languages) · Proto-Italic (in linguistics, proto-languages) · proto-language (in linguistics, proto-languages) · protoplasm (words in which it has the meaning "first") · protozoon (words in which it has the meaning "first") · protophysics (words in which it has the meaning "first") · protoethics (words in which it has the meaning "first") · protosymbolism · Proto-Greek (in linguistics, proto-languages) · Proto-Pontic (in linguistics, proto-languages) · Proto-Czech (in linguistics, proto-languages) · Proto-Indo-European (in linguistics, proto-languages) · protosymbol · Proto-Germanic (in linguistics, proto-languages) · prototype (words in which it has the meaning "first") · Proto-Indo-Aryan (in linguistics, proto-languages) · Proto-Turkic (in linguistics, proto-languages) · Proto-Baltic (in linguistics, proto-languages) · Proto-Celtic (in linguistics, proto-languages) · protosymbolic · Proto-Kiranti (in linguistics, proto-languages) · Proto-Slavic (in linguistics, proto-languages) · protoindustrial (words in which it has the meaning "first") · Proto-Indo-Iranian (in linguistics, proto-languages)

Synonyms

antero- · archo- (primary) · arch- (primary) · eka- (first stage) · meio- (minimal) · archi- (primary) · ur- (original) · cen- (common ancestor) · atelo- (primitive)

Translations (38)

pl proto- (chemistry) · pt prot- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · eo pra- (first) · cs proto- (first) · sv ur- (first) · pt proto- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · sv ur- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · cs pra- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · fr proto- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · de ur- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · yue 原始 ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · ms proto- (first) · pl pra- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · pl pra- (first) · nan-hbl 原始 ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · nl proto- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · fi ensi- (first) · bn প্রত্ন- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · fr proto- (first) · ru прото- (first) · fi kanta- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · hi आदि (first) · hi आदिम ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · cmn 原始 ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · gl proto- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · eo pra- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · tr proto- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · tr ana- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · ru пра- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · fi proto- (first) · hu alap- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · gl proto- (first) · de ur- (first) · cmn 原- (first) · hy վաղնջա- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · tr ön- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · hu ős- ((linguistics) ancestor of a family of languages) · ms purba- (first)