Protoplasmic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or composed of the living substance found within cells that contains the nucleus and cytoplasm
2. Pertaining to or made of the essential living material located within cells, which incorporates both the cytoplasm and the nucleus
3. Concerning the fundamental living material present in cells, encompassing both cytoplasm and nucleus

Etymology: Protoplasm was coined in the 1840s by the Czech-born physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkyně, who needed a name for the living substance inside cells. The word joined two Greek elements, "protos" meaning "first" and "plasma" meaning "something formed or moulded," so the sense was roughly "first-formed stuff." Purkyně's coinage was a deliberate invention, not a word inherited from antiquity, and it was built entirely from classical Greek parts. The adjective protoplasmic is simply protoplasm with the suffix "-ic" attached, meaning "of or relating to protoplasm." That suffix passed into English through Old French and Latin from Greek-derived forms, so the adjective is a regular, transparent formation rather than a separate invention. Its meaning therefore follows directly from the noun: anything that concerns the living contents of a cell.

Synonyms: cellular, biological, living