Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The loss of one or more sounds from the beginning of a word, as in copter from helicopter.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • etc. See apheresis, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Same as apheresis.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK Alternative spelling of apheresis.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (linguistics) omission at the beginning of a word as in `coon' for `raccoon' or `till' for `until'

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin, from Greek aphairesis, from aphairein, to take away : apo-, apo- + hairein, to take.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word aphaeresis.

Examples

  • He preserves the peculiarity of the Ionians for the preterite tenses of verbs the aphaeresis, as where he says [Greek omitted] for [Greek omitted].

    Essays and Miscellanies 2004

  • This, by an aphaeresis of tau and an epenthesis of omicron in two places, may be identified with echonoe, and signifies

    Cratylus 427? BC-347? BC Plato 1855

  • The patient used 5-6 units of aphaeresis products each day.

    Postbulletin.com Local News 2009

  • We are on track to begin three more Mipomersen studies this year and aphaeresis-eligible patient study, as well as two studies in high risk patient population.

    Biotech Sector and Stocks Analysis from Seeking Alpha 2008

  • We are on track to begin three more Mipomersen studies this year and aphaeresis-eligible patient study, as well as two studies in high risk patient population.

    pfblogs.org: The Ad-Free Personal Finance Blogs Aggregator (real estate blogs) 2008

  • That aside is vintage Espy, vintage cute -- in the old sense of acute, as W.R. E. reminds us in discussing aphaeresis, the "loss of an initial letter or syllable."

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XI No 2 1984

  • - a quick, penetrating insight; immediate impression, intuition, or estimate n. - & a. laxative (medicine). aperitive, adj. aphaeresis

    xml's Blinklist.com 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • The loss of initial consonants in words or morphemes. (Atata>Tata)

    June 20, 2007

  • JM blames aphids for the rise in aphaeresis, seriously!

    December 28, 2010

  • In addition, aphaeresis means surgical excision of an abnormal part of the body; amputation; extraction (of teeth (OED).

    February 12, 2012