protasis

noun — 2 senses

protasis

noun

/ˈpɹɒtəsɪs/

Etymology From Late Latin protasis, from Ancient Greek πρότασις (prótasis), from προτείνω (proteínō, “put forward, tender, propose”), from πρό (pró) + τείνω (teínō, “stretch”).

1

The first part of a play, in which the setting and characters are introduced.

  • It doubles itself in the middle of his life, reflects itself in another, repeats itself, protasis, epitasis, catastasis, catastrophe.1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:
2

Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy, Sciences A clause that expresses a contingent element in a conditional sentence.

  • In "I will be coming if this weather holds up", "if this weather holds up" is the protasis, and "I will be coming" is the apodosis.
  • 2005 B. P. Bairan: An Introduction to Syllogistic Logic Every conditional statement is made up of two component statements. The component statement that follows the "if" is called antecedent (or the "implicans" or — rarely — the "protasis"), and the component statement that follows the "then" is the "consequent"(or the "implicate" or — rarely — the "apodosis").
Related terms
protatic, catastasis, catastrophe, epitasis, protactic

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.