[ˈprəʊtəkɒl], (Noun)

Definitions:
- the official procedure or system of rules governing affairs of state or diplomatic occasions
(e.g: protocol forbids the prince from making any public statement in his defence)

- the original draft of a diplomatic document, especially of the terms of a treaty agreed to in conference and signed by the parties
(e.g: signatories to the Montreal Protocol)

- a formal or official record of scientific experimental observations
(e.g: protocols of published cases frequently lack this vital information)

- a set of rules governing the exchange or transmission of data between devices


Phrases:

Origin:
late Middle English (denoting the original minute of an agreement, forming the legal authority for future dealings relating to it): from Old French prothocole, via medieval Latin from Greek prōtokollon ‘first page, flyleaf’, from prōtos ‘first’ + kolla ‘glue’. Sense 1 derives from French protocole, the collection of set forms of etiquette to be observed by the French head of state, and the name of the government department responsible for this (in the 19th century)