Attested since 1880.[1]Learned borrowing fromAncient Greekἄφεσις(áphesis,“letting go”), fromἀφίημι(aphíēmi), fromἀπό(apó,“off”) +ἵημι(híēmi,“send forth”).
aphesis (countable anduncountable,pluralapheses)
- (phonetics, linguistics, prosody) Theloss of theinitialunstressedvowel of aword.
- Hypernyms:apheresis,procope
The word "scarp" is derived from "escarp" byaphesis.
loss of the initial unstressed vowel of a word
- ^James Murray (1881) “Dictionary wants: Terms wanted”, inTransactions of the Philological Society 1880-1881, Oxford,page175:
One of the commonest phenomena in the history of English words is the dropping of an initial toneless vowel usuallya-e- ori-. Thusa-down has becomedown,a-mendmend,a-roundround,attiretire,alarumlarum,alembiclimbeck,alonelone,estatestate,esquiresquire,estopstop,escapescape,eluminelimn,imongmong(er),iworkwork,icleptclept, and thus poets still makeabove’bove,against’gainst,among’mong. We want a name for this phonetic phenomenon, and especially a descriptive adjective for these shortened forms, indicating the way in which the initial toneless vowel is as it were “let go.” The Editor can think of nothing better than to call the phenomenonAphesis (from Gr.ἀφίημι), and the resulting formsAphetic forms. He will be glad if any one can suggest anything better, as the terms are required on almost every page of the Dictionary.
