apostrophe

apostrophe¹

—apostrophic /ap'euh strof"ik, -stroh"fik/, adj.

/euh pos"treuh fee/, n.

the sign ('), as used: to indicate the omission of one or more letters in a word, whether unpronounced, as in o'er for over, or pronounced, as in gov't for government; to indicate the possessive case, as in man's; or to indicate plurals of abbreviations and symbols, as in several M.D.'s, 3's.

[1580-90; < MF (with pron. later altered by confusion with APOSTROPHE²), r. earlier apostrophus < LL ( > MF) < Gk apóstrophos (prosoidía) eliding (mark), lit., (mark) of turning away, verbid of apostréphein to turn away, equiv. to apo- APO- + stréphein to turn; see STROPHE]

apostrophe²

—apostrophic /ap'euh strof"ik, -stroh"fik/, adj.

/euh pos"treuh fee/, n. Rhet.

a digression in the form of an address to someone not present, or to a personified object or idea, as "O Death, where is thy sting?"

[1525-35; < LL < Gk apostrophé a turning away, equiv. to apostroph- (verbid of apostréphein; see APOSTROPHE¹) + -e n. suffix]

* * *

▪ figure of speech

      a rhetorical device by which a speaker turns from the audience as a whole to address a single person or thing. For example, in William Shakespeare (Shakespeare, William)'s Julius Caesar, Mark Antony addresses the corpse of Caesar in the speech that begins:

O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,

That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man

That ever lived in the tide of times.

Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!

      Another example is in the first stanza of William Wordsworth (Wordsworth, William)'s poem “Ode to Duty”:

Stern Daughter of the Voice of God!

O Duty! if that name thou love

Who are a light to guide, a rod

To check the erring, and reprove;

Thou, who art victory and law

When empty terrors overawe;

From vain temptations dost set free;

And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity!

* * *