Protest

How to spell protest

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce protest

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does protest mean?

1. verbTo express strong objection to something, often publicly or formally.
2. nounA public or formal expression of strong objection to something.

Protest in a sentence

• verb

  Hundreds gathered to protest the proposed factory closure.

• noun

  The peaceful protest drew thousands to the town square.

• verb

  She wrote to the council to protest the parking charges.

• noun

  She resigned in protest at the new policy.

Where does protest come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Protest came into English in the late 1300s from the Old French protester, which descended from the Latin verb protestari. That Latin word combined the prefix pro-, meaning 'forth' or 'publicly', with testari, meaning 'to bear witness' or 'to assert', so the literal idea was to declare something openly and formally before others. The testari root traces back to testis, a 'witness', the very same source that gives us 'testify', 'testament', and 'attest'. For its first few centuries in English the word leaned heavily on this legal flavour of solemn declaration, as in formally protesting one's innocence. Only later did it broaden into the modern sense of objecting strongly or demonstrating against something. Remembering the hidden 'witness' root helps fix the single t in the middle and the -test ending.

How the word is built

• pro- (forth, publicly)
• test (from Latin testari: to bear witness, assert)