protoword

English

Etymology

From proto- +‎ word.

Noun

protoword (plural protowords)

1. (linguistics) An early wordlike utterance produced by an infant before it has acquired a true language.
2. (linguistics) A wordlike utterance produced by early people who had yet to develop full language capability; a word from a proto-language.

Related terms

• proto-language

See also

• ur-word