apostrophe
pronunciation
How to pronounce apostrophe in British English:
UK [əˈpɒstrəfi]
How to pronounce apostrophe in American English:
US [əˈpɑːstrəfi]
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- Noun:
- address to an absent or imaginary person
- the mark (') used to indicate the omission of one or more letters from a printed word
Word Origin
- apostrophe
- apostrophe: [17] Apostrophe comes originally from the Greek phrase prosōidiā apóstrophos, literally ‘accent of turning away’, hence, a mark showing where a letter or sound has been omitted. Apóstrophos itself was derived from the compound verb apostréphein, formed from the prefix apo- ‘away’ and the verb stréphein ‘turn’ (related to the second element of catastrophe [16], whose Greek original meant literally ‘overturning’). English acquired the word via French and Latin.=> catastrophe
- apostrophe (n.)
- mark indicating omitted letter, 1580s, from Middle French apostrophe, from Late Latin apostrophus, from Greek apostrophos (prosoidia) "(the accent of) turning away," thus, a mark showing where a letter has been omitted, from apostrephein "avert, turn away," from apo- "from" (see apo-) + strephein "to turn" (see strophe). In English, the mark often represents loss of -e- in -es, possessive ending. It was being extended to all possessives, whether they ever had an -e- or not, by 18c. Greek also used this word for a "turning aside" of an orator in speech to address some individual, a sense first recorded in English 1530s.
Example
- 1. Before the seventeenth century the apostrophe was rare .
- 2. On the old woman 's knee was a large drop of blood shaped like an apostrophe .
- 3. While this is not to say that the apostrophe should be renounced , there is plenty of evidence that it is on the way out .
- 4. Maybe it is the errant apostrophe , the splitting of the poor old infinitive , or the use of " like " as a comma .
- 5. In britain , the apostrophe has , for some time , been vanishing from street signs , much to the chagrin of the apostrophe protection society ( founded 2001 ) .