FromLatinaphaeresis, fromAncient Greekἀφαίρεσις(aphaíresis,“a taking away”), fromἀφαιρέω(aphairéō) (fromἀφ-(aph-), variant ofἀπό(apó,“off, away from”) before an aspirated vowel) +αἱρέω(hairéō,“to take; to snatch”)) +-σις(-sis,suffix forming nouns of action); the grammatical sense developed in Latin.[1]
apheresis (countable anduncountable,pluralaphereses)(US, Canada)
- (phonetics, linguistics, prosody)Elision,suppression, or completeloss of aletter or sound (syllable) from thebeginning of aword, such as the development ofspecial fromespecial.[1]
- Synonyms:pheresis,procope
- Hyponym:aphesis
- Coordinate terms:syncope,apocope,elision,clipping,abbreviation,aphesis
- (medicine, specific, still current) Theremoval ofblood from apatient, and the removal of certaincomponents (such asplatelets) from that blood, followed by thetransfusion of the filtered blood back to thedonor (patient).
- Synonyms:pheresis,hemapheresis
- Coordinate term:plasmapheresis
- (medicine, general, obsolete)Extirpation orextraction of asuperfluity (especially apathological one) from thebody, especiallyblood.
- Hyponym:bloodletting
loss of letters or sounds from the beginning of a word
medicine: removal, filtering and returning of blood