| aphetic forms |
| Definition: The language-change process where new words are created by the loss of a short unaccented vowel at the beginning of another word is called aphesis. The words resulting from this process are called aphetic forms. |
| Example:
(1) mend from amend (2) tend from attend (3) cute from acute |
| Etymology: The word aphetic derives from the Greek aphienai, to send forth (from Greek apo, from + hienai, to send). |
| OED: Its first OED citation is from 1880 (Murray citing himself): "The Editor
can think of nothing better than to call the phenomenon Aphesis. .. and the resulting forms Aphetic forms. " (J. A. H. Murray in Transactions of the Philological Society, 175) |