Word.ws English Dictionary

protomyth

protomyth noun: an initial form of a myth that is inferred or known about only from secondary sources; a motif that is not yet accorded the status of myth, but may (it is supposed) become one.

Noun

protomyth (plural protomyths)

  1. An initial form of a myth that is inferred or known about only from secondary sources; a motif that is not yet accorded the status of myth, but may (it is supposed) become one.
    • In the protomyth, for which the Latvian and Indie myths give evidence, the sun-maiden, which Helen strongly resembles, was married to the divine horsemen (v. (Robbins) Dexter [1980]: 21-22; Dexter [1984]: 138-142).1990, Journal of Indo-European Studies, page 303
    • Petrosyan, noting that this story links the water-horse to the twins' conception, proposes a protomyth in which the horse is the twins' father.2005, “Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies, Volumes 14-16”, in Society for Armenian Studies, page 15

Forms of protomyth

pluralprotomyths

Origin of protomyth

From proto- + myth.

Questions about protomyth

What does protomyth mean?
Protomyth means an initial form of a myth that is inferred or known about only from secondary sources; a motif that is not yet accorded the status of myth, but may (it is supposed) become one.
What part of speech is protomyth?
Protomyth is a noun.
What is the plural of protomyth?
The plural of protomyth is protomyths.

Words near protomyth in the dictionary

  1. protomullets
  2. protomylonite
  3. protomylonites
  4. protomyofibroblast
  5. protomyofibroblasts
  6. protomyth
  7. protomyths
  8. proton
  9. proton beam
  10. proton capture
  11. proton captures

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: protomyth (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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