Prosiopesis

Prosiopesis (from Ancient Greek προσιώπησις prosiṓpēsis 'becoming silent') is a term coined by Otto Jespersen for pronouncing a word or phrase without its initial sounds. Among the examples Jespersen gives are "Morning" for "Good morning" and "'Fraid not" for "I'm afraid not". Jespersen introduced the idea in a 1917 book;^[1] he also mentioned it in a later work.^[2]

This is similar to aposiopesis, where the ending of a sentence is deliberately excluded. David Crystal writes, "In rhetorical terminology, an elision in word-INITIAL position was known as aphaeresis or prosiopesis, in word-MEDIAL position was known as syncope, and in word-FINAL position as apocope."^[3] (Richard Lanham similarly defines aphaeresis more narrowly than Jespersen defines prosiopesis, a term that Lanham does not mention.^[4])

Other synonyms include aphesis and procope.^[5]

Prosiopesis and aposiopesis are studied as sources of interjections.^[6]