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An apocope or apocopation is a type of metaplasm that refers to a word formed by removing the end of a longer original word. Similar concepts include aphaeresis, which removes the beginning part of a word, and syncope, which removes part of the middle.
The word apocopation is derived from the Greek apokoptein (from apo (away (from)) and koptein (to cut)).
In English, by the process of apocope, morning becomes "morn", photography "photo", cinematography, "cinema". This is particularly common in Australian English. In German, (ich) gebe becomes (ich) geb.
Some languages have apocopations internalized as mandatory forms. In Spanish, for example, many adjectives that come before the noun lose the final vowel when they precede a noun in the masculine singular form. The word uno (one) thus becomes un and grande (big/great) becomes gran. In these cases, one would say un mundo (one world) rather than uno mundo, and gran aventura (great adventure) rather than grande aventura.
In many languages, apocopation is also used to form shorter synonyms of a word, which becomes a sort of spoken abbreviation the word. For example, the French réac is used as short for réactionnaire, and démo means démonstration. Shortened forms for names are common in Japanese: Makudonarudo (McDonald's) becomes Maku or Makudo, and Kentaki Furaido Chikin (or Kentucky Fried Chicken) is referred to as Kentaki in daily speech. In Japanese, it is also common to shorten normal words, especially those of foreign origin, a famous case being anime, short for anime-shon (animation).
Apocopation is also used regularly to form diminutives of names. Some English examples:
- Alexander → Alex
- Andrew → Andy
- Meghan or Megan → Meg
- Thomas → Tom
Whereas German prefers aphaeresis, as in these examples (note the difference):
- Susanne → Sanne
- Maria → Ria
- Vanessa → Nessi
For a list of apocopations in the English language, see List of English apocopations.
See also
External sources
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"Apocope"