prosiopesis

Coined in 1917 by the Danish linguist Jens Otto Harry Jespersen:[1] pro- (“before”) (from the Ancient Greek preposition πρό (pró)) + σιώπησις (siṓpēsis, “taciturnity”) (from σιωπάω (siōpáō, “to be silent”)) + -σις (-sis), (-sis, suffix forming nouns of action).[2][3]

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: prŏs'ĭōpēʹsĭs, prŏ'sĭəpēʹsĭs, IPA^(key): /ˌpɹɒsɪəʊˈpiːsɪs/[2][3] /ˌpɹɒsɪəˈpiːsɪs/[3]
• (General American) enPR: prŏs'iōpiʹsĭs, IPA^(key): /ˌpɹɑsioʊˈpisɪs/[3]
• Rhymes: -iːsɪs
• Hyphenation: pros‧i‧o‧pe‧sis

prosiopesis (countable and uncountable, plural prosiopeses)

1. (grammar) Ellipsis of the beginning of a grammatical construction,[2][3] common in informal speech and spontaneous written electronic communication, frequently occurring in stock phrases and interjections.
   • 2003, David Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics, page 159 (5th Ed.; Wiley–Blackwell; →ISBN, 9780631226642)

     Traditional rhetoric was much concerned with the phenomenon of elision, because of the implications for constructing well-formed metrical lines, which would scan well. In rhetorical terminology, an elision in word-initial position was known as aphaeresis or prosiopesis, in word-medial position as syncope, and in word-final position as apocope. A similar classification was made for the opposite of elision, intrusion.

   The students of English were making good progress in getting to grips with the intricacies of informal constructions, peppering their conversations with proverbial idioms and substituting stock phrases like “Good morning!” and “Thank you.” with prosiopeses like “Morning!” and “‛Kyou.”

• (forms of word-elision): (from word-final position) apocope, aposiopesis; (from word-medial position) syncope, *synsiopesis

• prosiopetic (rare)