| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
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| APHERESIS |
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| (uh-FER-uh-sis) is the dropping or clipping from a word of a first (frequently unstressed) syllable or syllables. (Aphaeresis is a variant spelling.) It is the process of abbreviation that gives us phone from telephone, bus from omnibus, drawing room from withdrawing room, and the like. We usually begin by spelling the new version of the word with an apostrophe in place of the front syllable(s) missing in some spoken uses: ’cept for except, and ’til for until, for example, and then later on the apostrophe too may be dropped: cello and cellist are Standard, and we rarely ever encounter ’cello or ’cellist today (much less violoncello and violoncellist). See also APHESIS; APOSTROPHE (2); ELLIPSIS (2); EYE DIALECT; TILL. | 1 |
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| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
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