| proto- or prot- pref. 1. First in time; earliest: protolithic. 2. First formed; primitive; original: protohuman. 3. Proto- Being a form of a language that is the ancestor of a language or group of related languages: Proto-Germanic. 4. Having the least amount of a specified element or radical: protoporphyrin. [Greek pr  to-, from prtos; see per1 in Indo-European roots.] |
proto- sometimes before a vowel, prot-
combining form
1. indicating the first in time, order, or rank protomartyr
2. primitive, ancestral, or original prototype
3. (Linguistics) indicating the reconstructed earliest stage of a language Proto-Germanic
4. (Chemistry) indicating the first in a series of chemical compounds protoxide
5. (Chemistry) indicating the parent of a chemical compound or an element protactinium
[from Greek prōtos first, from pro before; see pro-2]
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