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‖n. pl. [ NL., fr. Gr. poly`s many + &unr_; first + &unr_;, &unr_;, tooth. ] (Zool.) A division of marsupials in which there are more fore incisor teeth in each jaw. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Gr. prw^tos first, a superl. fr. pro` before. See Pro-. ] 1. A combining form prefix signifying first, primary, primordial; as, protomartyr, the first martyr; protomorphic, primitive in form; protoplast, a primordial organism; prototype, protozoan. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Chem.) (a) Denoting the first or lowest of a series, or the one having the smallest amount of the element to the name of which it is prefixed; as protoxide, protochloride, etc. (b) Sometimes used as equivalent to mono-, as indicating that the compound has but one atom of the element to the name of which it is prefixed. Also used adjectively. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to the first canon, or that which contains the authorized collection of the books of Scripture; -- opposed to deutero-canonical. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Chem.) Pertaining to, derived from, or designating, an organic acid which is obtained as a white crystalline substance from catechin, asafetida, oil of cloves, etc., and by distillation itself yields pyrocatechin. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Proto- + Gr. &unr_; the tail. ] (Zool.) Having a caudal fin extending around the end of the vertebral column, like that which is first formed in the embryo of fishes; diphycercal. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL. See Proto-, and Coccus. ] (Bot.) A genus of minute unicellular algæ including the red snow plant (Protococcus nivalis). [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To make or write protocols, or first draughts; to issue protocols. Carlyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. protocole, LL. protocollum, fr. Gr. &unr_; the first leaf glued to the rolls of papyrus and the notarial documents, on which the date was written; prw^tos the first (see Proto-) + &unr_; glue. ] 1. The original copy of any writing, as of a deed, treaty, dispatch, or other instrument. Burrill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The minutes, or rough draught, of an instrument or transaction. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Diplomacy) (a) A preliminary document upon the basis of which negotiations are carried on. (b) A convention not formally ratified. (c) An agreement of diplomatists indicating the results reached by them at a particular stage of a negotiation. [ 1913 Webster ]

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v. t. To make a protocol of. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who draughts protocols. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + conch. ] (Zool.) The embryonic shell, or first chamber, of ammonites and other cephalopods. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Proto- + Doric. ] (Arch.) Pertaining to, or designating, architecture, in which the beginnings of the Doric style are supposed to be found. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + root of Gr. gi`gnesqai to be born: cf. F. protogyne. ] (Min.) A kind of granite or gneiss containing a silvery talcose mineral. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Proto + Gr. gynh` a woman. ] (Bot.) Same as Proterogynous. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL., from Gr. &unr_; first + &unr_; horse. ] (Paleon.) A genus of fossil horses from the Lower Pliocene. They had three toes on each foot, the lateral ones being small. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL., fr. Gr. &unr_;; &unr_; first + &unr_; martyr: cf. F. protomartyr. See Proto-, and Martyr. ] The first martyr; the first who suffers, or is sacrificed, in any cause; -- applied esp. to Stephen, the first Christian martyr. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + -mere + -ite. ] (Zool.) The second segment of one of the Gregarinæ. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. A finer form of metals, indicated by enhanced lines in their spark spectra (which are also observed in the spectra of some stars), obtained at the highest available laboratory temperatures (Lockyer); as protocalcium, protochromium, protocopper, protonickel, protosilicon, protostrontium, prototitanium, protovanadium. -- Pro`to*me*tal"ic a. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

a. [ Proto- + Gr. morfh` form. ] (Biol.) Having the most primitive character; in the earliest form; as, a protomorphic layer of tissue. H. Spencer. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. Protonemata [ NL., fr. Gr. &unr_; first + &unr_;, &unr_;, a thread. ] (Bot.) The primary growth from the spore of a moss, usually consisting of branching confervoid filaments, on any part of which stem and leaf buds may be developed. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ or , n.; pl. -ries [ LL. protonotarius, fr. Gr. prw^tos first + L. notarius a shorthand writer, a scribe: cf. F. protonotaire. ] 1. A chief notary or clerk. “ My private prothonotary.” Herrick. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Formerly, a chief clerk in the Court of King's Bench and in the Court of Common Pleas, now superseded by the master. [ Eng. ] Wharton. Burrill. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A register or chief clerk of a court in certain States of the United States. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (R. C. Ch.) Formerly, one who had the charge of writing the acts of the martyrs, and the circumstances of their death; now, one of twelve persons, constituting a college in the Roman Curia, whose office is to register pontifical acts and to make and preserve the official record of beatifications. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Gr. Ch.) The chief secretary of the patriarch of Constantinople. [ 1913 Webster ]

Prothonotary warbler (Zool.), a small American warbler (Protonotaria citrea). The general color is golden yellow, the back is olivaceous, the rump and tail are ash-color, several outer tail feathers are partly white. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Prothonotary. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + organism. ] (Biol.) An organism whose nature is so difficult to determine that it might be referred to either the animal or the vegetable kingdom. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL., from Gr. &unr_; a chief priest. ] (Gr. Ch.) A protopope. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + Gr. &unr_; a plant. ] (Bot.) Any unicellular plant, or plant forming only a plasmodium, having reproduction only by fission, gemmation, or cell division. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The protophytes (Protophyta) are by some botanists considered an independent branch or class of the vegetable kingdom, and made to include the lowest forms of both fungi and algæ, as slime molds, Bacteria, the nostocs, etc. Cf. Carpophyte, and Oophyte. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + phytology. ] Paleobotany. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + opium. ] (Chem.) An alkaloid found in opium in small quantities, and extracted as a white crystalline substance. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + Gr. &unr_; form, fr. &unr_; to mold. ] (Biol.) The viscid and more or less granular material of vegetable and animal cells, possessed of vital properties by which the processes of nutrition, secretion, and growth go forward; the so-called “ physical basis of life;” the original cell substance, cytoplasm, cytoblastema, bioplasm sarcode, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The lowest forms of animal and vegetable life (unicellular organisms) consist of simple or unaltered protoplasm; the tissues of the higher organisms, of differentiated protoplasm. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Protoplasmic. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Of or pertaining to the first formation of living bodies. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Biol.) Of or pertaining to protoplasm; consisting of, or resembling, protoplasm. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. protoplastus the first man, Gr. &unr_; formed or created first; &unr_; first + &unr_; formed, fr. &unr_; to form. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The thing first formed; that of which there are subsequent copies or reproductions; the original. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Biol.) A first-formed organized body; the first individual, or pair of individuals, of a species. [ 1913 Webster ]

A species is a class of individuals, each of which is hypothetically considered to be the descendant of the same protoplast, or of the same pair of protoplasts. Latham. [ 1913 Webster ]

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‖n. pl. [ NL. ] (Zool.) A division of fresh-water rhizopods including those that have a soft body and delicate branched pseudopodia. The genus Gromia is one of the best-known. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. First-formed. Howell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + Gr. &unr_;, &unr_;, foot. ] (Zool.) The basal portion, or two proximal and more or less consolidated segments, of an appendage of a crustacean. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + pope: cf. F. protopope, Russ. protopop'. ] (Gr. Ch.) One of the clergy of first rank in the lower order of secular clergy; an archpriest; -- called also protopapas. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL., from Gr. &unr_; first + &unr_; a feather (taken to mean, fin). ] (Zool.) See Komtok. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + salt. ] (Chem.) A salt derived from a protoxide base. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + silicate. ] (Chem.) A silicate formed with the lowest proportion of silicic acid, or having but one atom of silicon in the molecule. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + somite. ] (Zool.) One of the primitive segments, or metameres, of an animal. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + sulphide. ] (Chem.) That one of a series of sulphides of any element which has the lowest proportion of sulphur; a sulphide with but one atom of sulphur in the molecule. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + sulphuret. ] (Chem.) A protosulphide. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., from Gr. prw^tos first + qhri`on, dim. of qh`r beast. ] (Zool.) Same as Monotremata. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. See Proto-, and Trachea. ] (Zool.) Same as Malacopoda. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F., from L. prototypus original, primitive, Gr. &unr_;, &unr_;; &unr_; first + &unr_; type, model. See Proto-, and Type ] An original or model after which anything is copied; the pattern of anything to be engraved, or otherwise copied, cast, or the like; a primary form; exemplar; archetype. [ 1913 Webster ]

They will turn their backs on it, like their great precursor and prototype. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Protovertebræ . [ Proto- + vertebra. ] (Anat.) One of the primitive masses, or segments, into which the mesoblast of the vertebrate embryo breaks up on either side of the anterior part of the notochord; a mesoblastic, or protovertebral, somite. See Illust. of Ectoderm. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The protovertebræ were long regarded as rudiments of the permanent vertebræ, but they are now known to give rise to the dorsal muscles and other structures as well as the vertebral column. See Myotome. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the protovertebræ. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Proto- + oxide: cf. F. protoxide. ] (Chem.) That one of a series of oxides having the lowest proportion of oxygen. See Proto-, 2 (b). [ 1913 Webster ]

protoxide of nitrogen, laughing gas, now called hyponitrous oxide. See under Laughing. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. (Chem.) To combine with oxygen, as any elementary substance, in such proportion as to form a protoxide. [ 1913 Webster ]