The story
- Proto-Indo-European*per-der.?
- Proto-Indo-European*pér
- Proto-Indo-European*pró
- Ancient Greekπρό (pró)
- Ancient Greekπρῶτος (prôtos)
- Ancient Greekπρωτο- (prōto-)
- English todayproto-
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek πρωτο- (prōto-), combination form of πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”), superlative of πρό (pró, “before”).
Words from the same roots
Ancient Greekπρωτο- all →
protoplastprotoduliaprototherianprotozeugma
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.