ONLINE
ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY:
- protoplasm (n.)
- 1848, from Ger. Protoplasma (1846), used by German botanist Hugo von Mohl (1805-72), from Gk. proto- "first" (see proto-) + plasma "something molded" (see -plasm). The word was in Late Latin meaning "first created thing," and may have existed in ecclesiastical Greek in a different sense. It was used 1839 by Czech physiologist Johannes Evangelista Purkinje (1787-1869) to denote the gelatinous fluid found in living tissue. This word prevailed, though German language purists preferred Urschleim "original mucus."
- word-forming element meaning "first," from Gk. proto-, comb. form of protos "first," superlative of pro "before" (see pro-).
- word-forming element meaning "a growth, a development; something molded," from Gk. -plasma, from plasma "something molded or created" (see plasma).
- 1712, "form, shape" (earlier plasm, 1620), from L.L. plasma, from Gk. plasma "something molded or created," from plassein "to mold," originally "to spread thin," from PIE *plath-yein, from root *pele- "flat, to spread" (see plane (n.1)). Sense of "liquid part of blood" is from 1845; that of "ionized gas" is 1928.