protocol

Meanings

Noun

• The minutes, or official record, of a negotiation or transaction; especially a document drawn up officially which forms the legal basis for subsequent agreements based on it.
• An official record of a diplomatic meeting or negotiation; later specifically, a draft document setting out agreements to be signed into force by a subsequent formal treaty.
• An amendment to an official treaty.
• The first leaf of a roll of papyrus, or the official mark typically found on such a page.
• The official formulas which appeared at the beginning or end of certain official documents such as charters, papal bulls etc.
• The original notes of observations made during an experiment; also, the precise method for carrying out or reproducing a given experiment.
• The official rules and guidelines for heads of state and other dignitaries, governing accepted behaviour in relations with other diplomatic representatives or over affairs of state.
• An accepted code of conduct; acceptable behaviour in a given situation or group.
• A set of formal rules describing how to transmit or exchange data, especially across a network.
• The set of instructions allowing a licensed medical professional to start, modify, or stop a medical or patient care order.

Verb

• To make a protocol of.
• To make or write protocols, or first drafts; to issue protocols.

Related

Similar words

• procedure
• policy

Origin

• Borrowed from Middle French protocolle, protocole ("document, record"), from Late Latin protocollum ("the first sheet of a volume (on which contents and errata were written)"), from Byzantine Greek πρωτόκολλον ("first sheet glued onto a manuscript"), from πρῶτος + κόλλα.