protoplasm

Term: protoplasm

Origin: Anc Greek

πρώτος/protos(=first or prime importance )

πλάσμα (noun)/plasma(=something formed or molded, an idol) > πλάσσω/plasso(=create, form, mold) à  substance without shape

Coined:

The “protoplasma” word was in Late Latin, meaning "first created thing," The term was first used by a Bishop of the early Catholic Church and Latin poet Venantius Fortunatus (c.530–c.600/609) in the sense of first created thing. Later the term is noted by the German botanist Hugo Von Mohl's who in his monograph (1846) published in the German journal Botan., Zeitung 73. Charles Darwin (1809 –1882) in 19th century viewed "protoplasm" as the holistic content of a cell. It was re-discovered later in 1939 by Czech physiologist Johannes Evangelista Purkinje to denote the gelatinous fluid found in living tissue. Purkinje decided to call the contents of plant cells from the Greek name Protoplastus which, in turn, came from the ancient liturgy of the Christian church.

Definition:

Protoplasm is the living fluid or substance of the cell that is that is surrounded by a plasma membrane and consisting  of two major divisions, the cytoplasm and the nucleoplasm and it is composed mainly of proteins, nucleic acids, sugars, lipids, carbohydrates, and inorganic salts