Protoliterate

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    With written language that is in its early stages. not-comparable

    "Knowledge of a "fact" and its institutionalization in a society are quite distinct: murder, for example, was probably "discovered" in the Pliocene, but the institutionalization of murder in warfare does not seem to have occurred until the late Neolithic or the protoliterate period."

  2. 2
    Of or related to the Protoliterate period. historical, not-comparable
  3. 3
    In the early stages of learning to read and write. not-comparable

Example

More examples

"Knowledge of a "fact" and its institutionalization in a society are quite distinct: murder, for example, was probably "discovered" in the Pliocene, but the institutionalization of murder in warfare does not seem to have occurred until the late Neolithic or the protoliterate period."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From proto- + literate.

Etymology 2

From Protoliterate period.

Related phrases

Protoliterate period

More for "protoliterate"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.