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Definition of Protocol - 12 dictionary results

pro⋅to⋅col

[proh-tuh-kawl, -kol, -kohl]
–noun
1. the customs and regulations dealing with diplomatic formality, precedence, and etiquette.
2. an original draft, minute, or record from which a document, esp. a treaty, is prepared.
3. a supplementary international agreement.
4. an agreement between states.
5. an annex to a treaty giving data relating to it.
6. Medicine/Medical. the plan for carrying out a scientific study or a patient's treatment regimen.
7. Computers. a set of rules governing the format of messages that are exchanged between computers.
8. Also called protocol statement, protocol sentence, protocol proposition. Philosophy. a statement reporting an observation or experience in the most fundamental terms without interpretation: sometimes taken as the basis of empirical verification, as of scientific laws.
–verb (used without object)
9. to draft or issue a protocol.

Origin:
1535–45; earlier protocoll < ML prōtocollum < LGk prōtókollon orig., a leaf or tag attached to a rolled papyrus manuscript and containing notes as to contents. See proto-, colloid


pro⋅to⋅col⋅ar [proh-tuh-kol-er] , pro⋅to⋅col⋅a⋅ry, pro⋅to⋅col⋅ic, adjective
pro·to·col   (prō'tə-kôl', -kōl', -kŏl')   
n.  
    1. The forms of ceremony and etiquette observed by diplomats and heads of state.
    2. A code of correct conduct: safety protocols; academic protocol.
  1. The first copy of a treaty or other such document before its ratification.
  2. A preliminary draft or record of a transaction.
  3. The plan for a course of medical treatment or for a scientific experiment.
  4. Computer Science A standard procedure for regulating data transmission between computers.
intr.v.   pro·to·coled or pro·to·colled, pro·to·col·ing or pro·to·col·ling, pro·to·cols
To form or issue protocols.

[French protocole, from Old French prothocolle, draft of a document, from Medieval Latin prōtocollum, from Late Greek prōtokollon, table of contents, first sheet : Greek prōto-, proto- + Greek kollēma, sheets of a papyrus glued together (from kollān, to glue together, from kolla, glue).]
pro'to·col'ar (-kŏl'ər), pro'to·col'a·ry (-kŏl'ə-rē) adj.

Protocol

Pro"to*col\, n. [F. protocole, LL. protocollum, fr. Gr. ? 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-) + ? glue.]

1. The original copy of any writing, as of a deed, treaty, dispatch, or other instrument. --Burrill.

2. The minutes, or rough draught, of an instrument or transaction.

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.

Protocol

Pro"to*col\, v. t. To make a protocol of.

Protocol

Pro"to*col\, v. i. To make or write protocols, or first draughts; to issue protocols. --Carlyle.

protocol

n. As used by hackers, this never refers to niceties about the proper form for addressing letters to the Papal Nuncio or the order in which one should use the forks in a Russian-style place setting; hackers don't care about such things. It is used instead to describe any set of rules that allow different machines or pieces of software to coordinate with each other without ambiguity. So, for example, it does include niceties about the proper form for addressing packets on a network or the order in which one should use the forks in the Dining Philosophers Problem. It implies that there is some common message format and an accepted set of primitives or commands that all parties involved understand, and that transactions among them follow predictable logical sequences. See also handshaking, do protocol.

protocol 
1541, as prothogall "draft of a document," from M.Fr. prothocole (c.1200), from M.L. protocollum "draft," lit. "the first sheet of a volume" (on which contents and errata were written), from Gk. protokollon "first sheet glued onto a manuscript," from protos "first" + kolla "glue." Sense developed in M.L. and M.Fr. from "official account" to "official record of a transaction," "diplomatic document," and finally, in Fr., to "formula of diplomatic etiquette." Meaning "diplomatic rules of etiquette" first recorded 1896, from French; general sense of "conventional proper conduct" is from 1952. "Protocols of the (Learned) Enders of Zion," Rus. anti-Semitic forgery purporting to reveal Jewish plan for world domination, first published in Eng. 1920 under title "The Jewish Peril."

Main Entry: pro·to·col
Pronunciation: 'prO-t&-"kol
Function: noun
1 : an original draft, minute, or record of a document or transaction
2 a : a preliminary memorandum often formulated and signed by diplomatic negotiators as a basis for a final convention or treaty b : the records or minutes of a diplomatic conference or congress that show officially the agreements arrived at by the negotiators

protocol pro·to·col (prō'tə-kôl', -kōl')
n.
The plan for a course of medical treatment or for a scientific experiment.

protocol   (prō'tə-kôl', -kōl')  Pronunciation Key 
  1. The plan for a course of medical treatment or for a scientific experiment.
  2. A set of standardized procedures for transmitting or storing data, especially those used in regulating data transmission between computers or peripherals.

protocol
A set of formal rules describing how to transmit data, especially across a network. Low level protocols define the electrical and physical standards to be observed, bit- and byte-ordering and the transmission and error detection and correction of the bit stream. High level protocols deal with the data formatting, including the syntax of messages, the terminal to computer dialogue, character sets, sequencing of messages etc.
Many protocols are defined by RFCs or by OSI.
See also handshaking.
[The Jargon File]
(1995-01-12)

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