▪ I. protoplast1
(ˈprəʊtəʊplæst)
Also 6 prothoplauste.
[a. F. protoplaste (16th c. prothoplauste), or ad. late L. prōtoplast-us (14th c. -plaustus), ad. Gr. πρωτόπλαστ-ος (LXX. Wisd. vii. 1), f. πρωτο- proto- + πλαστ-ός moulded, formed, vbl. adj. f. πλάσσ-ειν to form, mould.]
1. That which is first formed, fashioned, or created; the first-made thing or being of its kind; the original, archetype. a. The first man; the first created of the human race.
| c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 1049 Comyng from God to the firste father or prothoplauste [Fr. premiér pére ou prothoplauste] it goeth and retourne to God from father to the sonne. 1600 W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 202 In Salem citie was Adam our protoplast created. 1794 Coleridge Dest. Nations 282 Night A heavy unimaginable moan Sent forth, when she the Protoplast beheld. 1888 Q. Rev. Apr. 300 The Book [Wisdom of Solomon] has given to modern science the term ‘protoplast’, which it twice uses of Adam. |
† b. The first man of some line or series. Obs.
| 1644–7 Cleveland Char. Lond. Diurn. 1 The originall sinner in this kind was Dutch; Galliobelgicus the Protoplast; and the moderne Mercuries but Hans-en Kelders. 1737 Bracken Farriery Impr. (1757) II. 55 The Pedigree we often lay Claim to would produce a Drummer, as frequently as a Colonel, for his Protoplast. |
c. The first example; the original, model.
| 1612 Sturtevant Metallica viii. 67 The first windmilne that the inuentioner euer set vp to grinde corne was the Protoplast and example from whence all other wind-milnes sprange and were deriued. 1651 Biggs New Disp. ¶238 The protoplast or primitive ordainment of a Cautery, had excretion for its object. 1819 H. Busk Vestriad iv. 172 No more the protoplast of active beauty. 1863 Macm. Mag. May 63 If Hebrew was the protoplast of speech. |
d. attrib. in apposition; or adj.
| 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely ii. ix. 406 Ignatius, the Protoplast Iesuite. 1695 J. Sage Article, etc. Wks. 1844 I. 204 Andrew Melville, the Protoplast Presbyterian in Scotland. |
2. Biol. a. A unit or mass of protoplasm, such as constitutes a single cell; a bioplast. Sometimes applied to a unicellular organism; spec. one of the suborder Protoplasta of rhizopods.
| [1858 Mayne Expos. Lex., Protoplast, Physiol., a primary formation.] 1884 Standard Nat. Hist. (1888) I. 14 The filose protoplasts seem to be in nowise different from the Foraminifera, except that the shells of the latter are usually calcareous. 1898 tr. Strasburger's Bot. i. i. 52 Within the walled protoplasts, the granular protoplasm often exhibits internal flowing movements. |
b. The living contents of a cell; esp. in recent usage, a living cell whose cell wall has been removed or destroyed.
| 1884 Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1883 536 When the protoplast is in its normal position lining the cell wall, this core of protoplasm filling the pore would offer great resistance to a bodily passage of the cell sap. 1895 Jrnl. Microsc. Soc. 563 For the protoplast of the Cyanophyceæ and Schizomycetes the author proposes the term archiplast. 1925 E. B. Wilson Cell (ed. 3) i. 22 Cytosome and nucleus taken together form a living unit or protoplasmic system that is often spoken of as the protoplast (Hanstein) or sometimes as the energid (Sachs). 1953 C. Weibull in Jrnl. Bacteriol. LXVI. 690/2 The spherical bodies obtained by lysis in sucrose will be designated as ‘protoplasts’. 1970 Ambrose & Easty Cell Biol. viii. 271 The outer wall and capsule in many bacteria can be digested away by enzyme treatment leaving the protoplast, which is surrounded by a membrane still retaining the main permeability characteristics of the original bacterium. |
▪ II. ˈprotoplast2
Also 6 prothoplast.
[ad. med.L. prōtoplast-ēs, a. Gr. *πρωτοπλάστ-ης, f. πρωτο- proto- + πλάστης, agent-n. f. πλάσσειν: see prec.]
The first former, fashioner, or creator.
| 1600 W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 100 The followers of a prothoplast or first Author of a profession. [1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. Ep. Ded., The honour and reputation of the great Architect, man's Protoplastes.] 1676 Newton in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) II. 389 Nature,..became a complete imitator of the copies set her by the protoplast. 1872 Browning Fifine cxxiv, Those mammoth-stones, piled by the Protoplast Temple-wise in my dream! |