An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

A formal statement that gives details of a forthcoming event.
A printed document describing something (such as attractions or services) to clients or members.

From L. prospectus "outlook, view," → prospect.

From farâgâs, → prospect, + nuance suffix -é.

A → radioactive → chemical element which is a malleable, shiny silver-gray metal; symbol Pa. → atomic number 91; → mass number of most stable isotope 231; → melting point greater than 1,600°C; → boiling point 4,026°C; calculated → specific gravity 15.37; → valence +4, +5. Protactinium has 24 → isotopes of which only three are found in nature. The most stable is protactinium-231 (→ half-life about 32,500 years); it is also the most common, being found in nature in all uranium ores in about the same abundance as radium. The element was discovered by Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner, who found one of its isotopes in 1917. It was isolated in 1934, by Aristid von Grosse.

Protactinium, literally "parent of actinium," because actinium is a decay product of protactinium, from Gk. protos "first," → proto-, + → actinium.

Certain frequencies, not used for civil or military purposes (radio, television, communication channels, etc.), which are protected for research in radioastronomy, one such being 21 cm.

Protected p.p. of protect, from L. protectus, p.p. of protegere "protect, cover in front," from → pro- "in front" + tegere "to cover;" → band.

Bând, → band; negahdâridé p.p. of negahdâridan, variant of negahdâštan "to keep, behold, preserve, take care of," from negah, negâh "watch, care, custody, look" + (Mid.Pers. nikâh "look, glance, observation;" Proto-Iranian *ni-kas- "to look down," from ni- "down" (cf. O.Pers. ni preposition and verbal prefix "down;" Av. nī "down, in ,into;" Skt. ni "down," nitaram "downward;" Gk. neiothen "from below;" E. nether; O.E. niþera, neoþera "down, downward, below, beneath," from P.Gmc. *nitheraz (O.S. nithar, O.N. niðr, O.Fris. nither, Du. neder, Ger. nieder); PIE *ni- "down, below") + *kas- "to look, appear;" cf. Av. nikā-, nikāta- (in the name of the 15-th nask) "that which is observed," ākas- "to look;" Mid.Pers. âkâh, Mod.Pers. âgâh "aware, knowing;" Skt. kāś- "to become visible, appear;" Ossetic kast/kaesyn "to look") + dâridan, dâštan "to have, hold, maintain, possess" (Mid.Pers. dâštan; O.Pers./Av. root dar- "to hold, keep back, maintain, keep in mind;" cf. Skt. dhr- "to to hold, keep, preserve," dharma- "law;" Gk. thronos "elevated seat, throne;" L. firmus "firm, stable;" Lith. daryti "to make;" PIE *dher- "to hold, support").

1) An expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent, often in opposition to something a person is powerless to prevent or avoid.
2) To give manifest expression to objection or disapproval; remonstrate (Dictionary.com).

M.E., from O.Fr. protest, from preotester, and directly from L. protestari "to declare publicly, protest," from → pro- "forth, before" + testari "testify," from testis "witness."

Pâxos, literally "strike against," from pâ-, contraction of pâd- "agianst," → counter-, + xos "to strike," Gazi xos-, xus-, xûs- "to strike, throw;" Hamedani xostän, xus- "to throw", Khunsari xus- "to strike, throw," Kurd. (Sorani) xa-, (Kurmanji) xistin, xi- "to strike, beat," Qohrudi xosta "to throw," Ardestâni xoste, Shughni xust, xay-; Mid.Pers. xwas-, hws- "to trample;" Av. paiti xvanh- "to thresh;" Proto-Ir. *huah- "to strike, thresh" (Cheung 2007). ,

1a) (n.) An adherent of any of those Christian bodies that separated from the Church of Rome during the Reformation, or of any group descended from them.
1b) (originally) Any of the German princes who protested against the decision of the Diet of Speyer in 1529, which had denounced the Reformation.
1c) (lowercase) One who makes or enters a protests.
2a) (adj.) Belonging or pertaining to Protestants or their religion.
2b) (lowercase) protesting (Dictionary.com).

From Ger. or Fr. protestant, from L. protestantem (nominative protestans), p.p. of protestari, → protest.

Pâxosân agent noun or adj. from pâxosidan, → protest.

The religion of → Protestants.

→ protestant; → -ism.

1) The act of protesting.
2) Formal expression or declaration of objection, dissent, or disapproval (Dictionary.com).

→ protest; → -tion.

A person who publicly demonstrates opposition to something. Also protestor.

→ protest; → -er.

One of the largest of → Neptune's known moons discovered in 1989 by the Voyager 2 space probe. Proteus revolves around Neptune at a distance of about 92,800 km, completing one orbit in 26 hours, 54 minutes. Proteus is about 400 m in diameter, larger than → Nereid. Orbiting the planet in the same direction as Neptune rotates, Proteus remains close to Neptune's equatorial plane. Proteus is irregularly shaped and heavily cratered, but it shows no sign of geological modification. In fact Proteus is about as large as a satellite can be without being pulled into a spherical shape by its own gravity. Proteus is one of the darkest objects in the solar system. Like Saturn's moon Phoebe, Proteus reflects only six percent of the sunlight that it receives.

Originally designated S/1989 N 1, Proteus is named after the shape-changing sea god of Greek mythology.

The lightest and most common → isotope of → hydrogen, with one → proton and no → neutrons; symbol ¹H. See also → deuterium and → tritium.

From Gk. protos "first" + L. → -ium.

A combining form meaning "first, foremost, earliest form of," used in the formation of compound words such as → protogalaxy, → protoplanet, → protostar, etc.

From Gk. proto-, combining form of protos "first," superlative of pro "before," cognate with O.S. pruvu "first;" Rus. pervyy "first;" Av. pauruua-, as below.

Purvâ-, from O.Pers. paruviya- "former, initial," Av. pourva-, pouruuiia-, pauruua-, paoiriia- "first, initial, former;" cf. Skt. purva- "first, former, being before;" Tokharian B parwe "first;" PIE base *prwos "first."

The planet Earth during its → protoplanetary stage.

→ proto-; → Earth.

The hypothetical but strongly evidenced common ancestor of the Indo-European languages. PIE words are reconstructed from extant Indo-European languages. There is no clear agreement on exactly where or when the speakers of PIE lived. It is believed that most of the subgroups diverged and spread out over much of Europe, Iran, and northern Indian subcontinent during the fourth and third millennia BC. See also → proto-language.

→ proto-; + Indo-, → Indus, + → European.

The hypothetical and typically extinct language which is believed to be the ancestor of a group of languages of the same family. Historical linguistics uses comparative study of the languages of a family to reconstruct the ancestral language even though in most cases it was never recorded. Some examples are → Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Germanic, Proto-Romance, Proto-Sino-Tibetan, etc.

→ proto-; → language.

A very huge mass of gas which will give rise to a cluster of galaxies.

→ proto-; → cluster.

Computers: A set of rules and methods used for communication and transmission of data between different computer systems. Protocols may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of the two. Simple protocols define the behavior of a hardware connection and help with error detection 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.

M.E. prothogall "draft of a document," from M.Fr. prothocole, from M.L. protocollum "draft," literally "the first sheet of a volume" (on which contents were written), from Gk. protokollon "first leaf glued to the rolls of papyrus describing its contents," from → proto- "first" + kolla "glue."

Purvâband from purvâ-, → proto-, + band "joint; joined," past stem of bastan "to bind; to shut; to form seed buds; to clot," from Mid.Pers. bastan/vastan "to bind, shut," Av./O.Pers. band- "to bind, fetter," banda- "band, tie;" Skt. bandh- "to bind, tie, fasten;" PIE *bhendh- "to bind," cf. Ger. binden, E. bind.

A huge mass of gas that by contraction and condensation becomes a galaxy of stars. A galaxy during the early phase, before it has developed its present shape and stellar/gas content.

→ proto-; → galaxy.

A dense disk of liquid and vapor supposed to have formed around the Earth below the Roche limit after the proto-Earth was impacted by a Mars-sized object. The Moon was accreted from the Earth's mantle material froming the disk. See also → Theia (S. Charnoz and C. Michaut, 2015, arxiv.1507.05658).

→ proto-; → lunar; → disk.

A particle of the hadron family which is one of the two particles that make up atomic nuclei. It has an electric charge of one positive fundamental unit, a diameter of about 1.65 x 10^-13 cm, and a mass of about 1.67 x 10^-24 g (about 938 MeV c^-2).

From Gk. proton, neuter of protos "first." Coined by Eng. physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937).

The temperature in the → solar wind, as derived from the mean kinetic energy of protons: mv²/2 = (3/2)kT_p, where k is → Boltzmann's constant. There are two types of proton temperature: parallel temperature, measured from protons moving parallel to the magnetic field, and perpendicular temperature relating to protons at right angles to the magnetic field. The proton temperature is usually derived using particle detectors on board space probes that determine the velocity → distribution function of the particles from their energies (N. Meyer-Vernet, 2007, Basics of the Solar Wind, Cambridge Univ. Press). See also → electron temperature.

→ proton; → temperature.