protocolo

Forms

protocolo m (plural protocolos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin protocollum (“first sheet of a document; notary's register”), which the DLE calls Late Latin.^[2][3][4] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek πρωτόκολλον (prōtókollon), a late, Byzantine Greek word for the sheet glued to the front of a document to authenticate it, literally “the thing glued first”.^[5][2][6] It is formed from πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”) and κόλλα (kólla, “glue”).^[5][1]

The Greek word occurs, beside the Latin one, in the translation of Justinian's Code of the 6th century; in Medieval Latin it meant the minute of a contract and the register of a notary's minutes.^[7][8] The same word is Italian protocollo, French protocole and Portuguese protocolo, with an Old Portuguese variant Old Galician-Portuguese protacolo.^[9]

Covarrubias in 1611 took the second part instead from a Greek word for “limb”, because the book was a member of the act.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the CDH is a notarial document of 1456–1457, which says that a notary avia subçedido en los registros e protocolos, “had succeeded to the registers and protocols”, of his father, also a notary.^[11] Corominas dates the word only from 1611, and Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 already translates Latin protocolum as el protocolo de notario.^[5][12]

Semantic evolution

For three centuries the word meant the notary's book of registers: Covarrubias calls it the original book of public acts, and the Diccionario de Autoridades the book in which a notary keeps the registers of the deeds he has drawn up.^[10][13] Domínguez in 1846 added the code of etiquette by which governments deal with one another and the register of the decisions of congresses; the Academy took in the record of a diplomatic congress in 1869.^[14][15]

The modern dictionaries add the rules for official ceremonies and, by extension, of courtesy, the detailed plan of a scientific or medical procedure, and the rules for the exchange of data between computer systems.^[2][16][6] In medicine the word is recorded from 1832, and Puerto Rican Spanish uses the computing sense under the influence of English protocol.^[4][17] In Guatemala and Panama it also names the group of people who receive the guests of a congress, and in Nicaragua, jokingly, a big belly.^[18]

Timeline

• 1456–1457 – earliest record in the CDH, of a notary's registers and protocols.^[11]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin dictionary translates protocolum as the notary's protocol.^[12]
• 1558 – first record in the Americas, in a Lima council book.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it; the BDELC's date of first record.^[10][5]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the notary's book.^[13]
• 1832 – first record in medicine.^[4]
• 1846 – Domínguez records the senses of diplomatic etiquette and of the register of a congress.^[14]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the record of a diplomatic congress.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The ordered series of original deeds and other documents that a notary (notario) authorises and keeps.^[2][16]
2. The record or minutes of an agreement, conference or diplomatic congress; a protocol.^[2][1]
3. The rules laid down by law or custom for official or solemn ceremonies; etiquette: Según el protocolo, el embajador habló en último lugar.^[2][1]
4. A detailed sequence of steps for a scientific, technical or medical procedure.^[2][4]
5. (computing) The set of rules for communication between two systems.^[2]
6. (Guatemala, Panama) The staff who receive and look after the guests at a congress or conference.^[18]

Word family

• protocolizar
• protocolar
• protocolario

Related words

• prototipo
• Latin protocollum
• French protocole

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. protocolo
3. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. protocolo
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. protocolo
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. protocolo
6. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. protocolo
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. protocole
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1233
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. protocolo
12. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. protocolo
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 413
14. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1432
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 639
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. protocolo
17. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. protocolo
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. protocolo
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. protocolo