Apocope
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An apocope (/əˈpɒkəpi/) or apocopation (/əˌpɒkəˈpeɪʃən/) 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 term is derived from the Greek apokoptein “cutting off”, itself from apo- “away from” and koptein “to cut”.
In English, by the process of apocope, morning becomes "morn", photograph "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 Makku or Makudo, and Kentakki Furaido Chikin (or Kentucky Fried Chicken) is referred to as Kentakki or Kenta 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).
Many apocopes appear in Interlingua because of their wide international range: info, photo, auto, bus. These tend to be very recent loanwords and often occur in casual conversation. Curiously, some Interlingua words are lengthier than in many ethnic languages: compare Interlingua corpore with Spanish cuerpo. In this case, the Spanish word is viewed as an apparently apocopated variation of the Interlingua.
Apocopation is also used regularly to form diminutives of names. Some English examples:
- Alexander → Alex
- Andrew → Andy or Andi
- 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.
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