PROTOCOL

(From the Latin protocoUum: a word derived from the Greek T^mroi, first, and xoWot., glue; but the etymological signification attached to this derivation seems unknown.) The word protocol, in the French language, signifies • the formula; or technical words of legal instruments; in Germany, it has been used to denote the minutes or rough draught of an instrument or transaction. It is in the latter sense that the word has been borrowed by diplomacy, in which it signifies the original copv of any dispatch, treaty, or other document. [s. 1007]