aphesis
ap·he·sis
noun
1.
the gradual disappearance of an initial (usually unstressed) vowel or syllable as in `squire'' for `esquire''
Origin
Attested since 1880. Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἄφεσις (áphesis, “letting go”), from ἀφίημι (aphíēmi), from ἀπο- (apo-, “off”) + ἵημι (híēmi, “send forth”).
Related words
Broader terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.