# apostrophus
## English
### Etymology

From Latin apostrophus.

### Noun

apostrophus (plural apostrophi)
* (archaic) The omission of a vowel or syllable from a word, usually indicated by the apostrophe symbol ( ' ). examples: 'til, can't
** 1640, Ben Jonson, The English Grammar: Book 2: Of Syntax:Vowels suffer also this apostrophus before the consonant h.
** 1824, August Matthiä, Copious Greek Grammar - Volume 1, page xxxvi:Not that any examples are wanting to prove that the ancients did use the apostrophus in prose; for it was scarecely possible for them not to do so in many instances;
** 1865, Alexander Hume, Henry Benjamin Wheatley, Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue:Out of one word, the apostrophus is most usual in poesie;
* (archaic) The apostrophe symbol used to mark this elision.
** 1644, Richard Hodges, The English Primrose:The apostrophus or mark of contraction, is the same with the comma, onely the difference is of place; for, this stands not in the line, but over the upper part thereof, where the contraction is:
** 1833, Philipp Buttmann, Edmund Henry Barker, Dr. Philip Buttmann's Intermediate Or Larger Greek Grammar, page 46:In the Greek, as in other languages, a short vowel at the end of a word before another vowel, is thrown out by elision, and the apostrophus ' is placed as a mark or sign over the empty space;
** 1842, George Knox Gillespie, The Formative Greek Grammar, page 4:This apocope is denoted by the apostrophus ( ' ),
* (music, historical) An open notehead ( ~ ) or an apostrophe ( ' ) used as a neume to mark a low, unaccented syllable at the beginning of a phrase or a short quick syllable
** 1598, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost:You find not the apostrophus, and so miss the accent. Let me supervise the canzonet.
** 2009, Iain Fenlon, Early Music History, page 66:In the early Graduals Benevento VI. 38 and 40, the apostrophus is common in syllabic passages in sequences, tropes and prosulae.
** 2010, Rebecca Maloy, Inside the Offertory: Aspects of Chronology and Transmission, page iv:In transcriptions from Ben 34, I have not distinguished the apostrophus from regular notes.
** 2017, John Boe, Chant and Notation in South Italy and Rome before 1300, page 66:The early Beneventan apostrophus was optional, instructive and exemplary, suggesting low, quick, unaccented syllables at the start of a phrase (sometimes implying a preceding breath) in the Gregorian Mass Propers and short or quick syllables in tropes, prosulae and sequences.
* The symbol 'Ↄ', used in Roman numerals to indicate multiplication by 10.
** 1862, Richard Hiley, The Elements of Latin Grammar, page 26:In every multiplication with ten a fresh apostrophus is added; thus IↃↃ = 5000, IↃↃↃ = 50,000.
** 1878, Ethan Allen Andrews, Grammar of the Latin Language, page 72:The annexing of the apostrophus or inverted C (Ↄ) to IↃ makes its value ten times greater;
** 2002, Allied Chambers, The Chambers Dictionary:The symbol Ↄ, known as the apostrophus, might be repeated one or more times after IↃ , each Ↄ making the number ten times greater, as IↃↃ = 5000, IↃↃↃↃ = 500,000.
** 2018, Jan K. Coetzee, Books & Bones & Other Things, page 78:Anno CIↃ IↃ C LXXXVI. (Apostrophus numbering): In the year 1686

## Latin
### Alternative forms

* apostrophos

### Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀπόστροφος (apóstrophos, literally “turned back”), from ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō, “I turn away”).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /aˈpos.tro.pʰus/, [äˈpɔs̠t̪rɔpʰʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /aˈpos.tro.fus/, [äˈpɔst̪rofus]

### Noun

apostrophus f (genitive apostrophī); second declension
* (Late Latin, orthography) The symbol '; apostrophe

#### Declension

Second-declension noun.

#### Descendants

* → Albanian: apostrof
* → Asturian: apóstrofe (learned)
* → Catalan: apòstrof (learned)
* → Czech: apostrof
* → Danish: apostrof
* → Dutch: apostrof, apostrophe (archaic)
** → Indonesian: apostrof
** → Papiamentu: apostròf
* → Esperanto: apostrofo
* → French: apostrophe (learned)
** → English: apostrophe
** → Romanian: apostrof
** → Russian: апо́строф (apóstrof)
*** → Azerbaijani: apostrof
** → Persian: آپاستروف (âpâstruf)
** → Turkish: apostrof
* → German: Apostroph
* → Italian: apostrofo (learned)
* → Luxembourgish: Apostroph
* → Latvian: apostrofs
* → Lithuanian: apostròfas
* → Macedonian: апостроф (apostrof)
* → Norwegian Bokmål: apostrof
* → Norwegian Nynorsk: apostrof
* → Polish: apostrof
* → Portuguese: apóstrofo (learned)
* → Serbo-Croatian: àpostrof
* → Slovene: apostrọ̑f
* → Spanish: apóstrofo (learned)

### References

* “apostrophus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* apostrophus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.