> OED Entry Search > > Term: aphesis > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > Found: one match > > aphesis > > aphesis æ;fisis. a. Gr. afesij a letting go, f. afienai, f. af' off, > away + ienai to send, let go, suggested by the Editor in 1880. The > gradual and unintentional loss of a short unaccented vowel at the > beginning of a word; as in squire for esquire, down for adown, St. > Loy for St. Eloy, limbeck for alimbeck, 'tention! for attention! It > is a special form of the phonetic process called Aphæresis, for > which, from its frequency in the history of the English language, a > distinctive name is useful. Now also used in the sense of aphæresis. > > * 1880 J. A. H. Murray in Trans. Philol. Soc. 175 The Editor can > think of nothing better than to call the phenomenon > Aphesis..and the resulting forms Aphetic forms. > > * 1930 A. Western in Gram. Misc. Jespersen 135, I do not quite > see the difference between aphesis and aphæresis, but use the > former term as the shorter and therefore more convenient of the > two; > > * 1932 W. L. Graff Lang. vi. 234 A loss at the beginning is > called aphaeresis or aphesis..bishop < Lat; episcopus, knife > and write in which k and w were formerly sounded.