protasis Hear it!

protasis definition

prota·sis (prät′ə sis)

noun pl. protases -·ses′ (-sēz′)

  1. Drama the opening of a play, in which the characters are introduced
  2. Gram. the clause that expresses the condition in a conditional sentence

Etymology: LL < Gr < proteinein, to stretch before, present < pro-, before + teinein, to stretch: see thin

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Comments
Improve this definition.
Do you have more to add? Share your linguistic knowledge or observation.
/Register to save your comments.