Definition: Omitting a word or phrase that is easily inferred from the context.
Note: According to the OED, someone who is "addicted to the use of the figure Ellipsis in argument or discourse" is called an ellipsist. |
| Example: In the sentence The average banker thinks he isn't. The word average is omitted but understood to follow isn't. |
| Etymology: The first OED citation of the word is from 1570, but its first recorded use in its grammatical sense is from 1612. It derives from the Greek elleipsis, a leaving out. |