Protoplasm is the gooey stuff that living cells are made of. A cell's protoplasm is colorless and surrounded by a plasma membrane. Sometimes people use protoplasm to mean “formless blob of life.”
There are many elements that make up the protoplasm of a cell, including the nucleus, amino acids, lipids, and ions. Scientists generally use the word protoplasm to mean the cytoplasm plus the nucleus. It was coined in the 1840s by a German scientist, from the Greek roots proto, "first," and plasma, "something molded or formed."