Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Primitive in structure or form.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Being in the first, most primitive, or simplest form or shape; having a primitive character or structure; not metamorphic: as, “a protomorphic layer” [of tissue]

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Biol.) Having the most primitive character; in the earliest form.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective biology Having the most primitive character; in the earliest form.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

proto- + -morphic

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Examples

  • It is the place where there exists the protocell of emotions, the place where there exists the protomorphic ego, and the act of writing is the process of going home to where things got started.

    TalkTalk E. L. Konigsburg 1995

  • It is the place where there exists the protocell of emotions, the place where there exists the protomorphic ego, and the act of writing is the process of going home to where things got started.

    TalkTalk E. L. Konigsburg 1995

  • After the main yellow race had been thrown off from the main stock, the fourth earliest protomorphic group was formed

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

  • According to Fritsch, owing to the universal fertility of crosses among mankind, the contact of the main stocks with one another and with the protomorphic races gave rise at the points of contact to the metamorphic races.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

  • At the same time Fritsch and Stratz assumed a series of tribes without an instinct for migration (non-nomadic peoples); these were named by Stratz protomorphic.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

  • After the black races in Africa had become separated from the main stock of mankind, the third earliest protomorphic group separated from the first stock (the

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

  • Following in part the investigations made by Klaatsch of the skeleton, Stratz takes as protomorphic criteria: great individual variability; normal proportions (according to the calculations of

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

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