Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In rhetoric, a digressive address; the interruption of the course of a speech or writing, in order to address briefly a person or persons (present or absent, real or imaginary) individually or separately; hence, any abrupt interjectional speech. Originally the term was applied only to such an address made to one present.
- noun In botany, the arrangement of chlorophyl-granules under the action of direct sunlight (light-apostrophe), and in darkness (dark-apostrophe): in the first case upon the lateral walls of the cells, so that their edges are presented to the light; in the latter, upon the lateral and basal cell-walls: used in distinction from
epistrophe (which see). - noun In grammar, the omission of one or more letters in a word.
- noun In writing and printing, the sign (') used to indicate such omission.
- noun The sign (') used for other purposes, especially, single or double, as a concluding mark of quotation, as in “‘Well done,' said he.” See
quotation-mark .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Rhet.) A figure of speech by which the orator or writer suddenly breaks off from the previous method of his discourse, and addresses, in the second person, some person or thing, absent or present.”
- noun (Gram.) The contraction of a word by the omission of a letter or letters, which omission is marked by the character ['] placed where the letter or letters would have been.
- noun The mark ['] used to denote that a word is contracted (as in
ne'er for never,can't for can not), and as a sign of the possessive, singular and plural; as, a boy's hat, boys' hats. In the latter use it originally marked the omission of the lettere .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun rhetoric A sudden
exclamatory piece ofdialogue addressed to someone or something, especiallyabsent . - noun orthography The text character
’ , that serves as apunctuation mark in various languages and as a diacrictical mark in certain rare contexts.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun address to an absent or imaginary person
- noun the mark (') used to indicate the omission of one or more letters from a printed word
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The apostrophe is used when you abbreviate the decade as the '90s (the apostrophe indicates the missing numerals).
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Log in to Reply jadechimera (UID#1821) on September 8th, 2009 at 4: 33 pm lack of possessive apostrophe is also fail …
do you know they use your head to block little girls vaginas on the internet | My[confined]Space 2009
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An apostrophe is missing from “childrens”, and there is a strong case for making “menu” plural, but these lapses are so frequent in signs as to be mundane; it is the appearance of “Al” that makes it irresistible.
À la carte, à la, Al 2009
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An apostrophe is missing from “childrens”, and there is a strong case for making “menu” plural, but these lapses are so frequent in signs as to be mundane; it is the appearance of “Al” that makes it irresistible.
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I guess that being French, the incredibly sophisticated and capricious ways the apostrophe is used in my language has given me full confidence that I would be forgiven whatever I would do in another language.
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In summary, both with and without an apostrophe are okay, but it seems without the apostrophe is preferred.
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The apostrophe is no picnic in a last name either.
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » The Apostrophe: Most Vexing Punctuation Mark? 2008
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In summary, both with and without an apostrophe are okay, but it seems without the apostrophe is preferred.
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The apostrophe is misused extensively; more so, perhaps, than any other punctuation mark.
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The apostrophe is misused extensively; more so, perhaps, than any other punctuation mark.
Preposterous Apostrophes (a series) « Motivated Grammar 2007
uselessness commented on the word apostrophe
Don't put apostrophe's where they don't belong.
January 25, 2007
evin290 commented on the word apostrophe
A digression in the form of an address to someone not present, or to a personified object or idea
May 20, 2007
frindley commented on the word apostrophe
Remember always to use an apostrophe (not an open quote mark) when it appears at the beginning of a word, e.g. ’cause (for because) and ’60s rather than ‘cause and ‘60s.
Alas, the evil microsoft delights in making unsolicited corrections.
March 30, 2008
gangerh commented on the word apostrophe
I'd give up my whole apostrophe to have an id.
April 21, 2008
gangerh commented on the word apostrophe
An apostrophe does not a plural make.
April 21, 2008
bilby commented on the word apostrophe
Goe's without saying.
April 21, 2008
mollusque commented on the word apostrophe
Except for plurals of letters (e.g., "a's", "b's", not "as", "bs").
April 21, 2008
gangerh commented on the word apostrophe
Is that true, mollusque? I don't remember ever knowing that. So cd's is correct for more than one cd, is it?
April 22, 2008
mollusque commented on the word apostrophe
No, because CD is more than one letter. The plural is CDs.
April 22, 2008
whichbe commented on the word apostrophe
The Apostrophe Protection Society
May 11, 2008
skipvia commented on the word apostrophe
It's a catastrophe for the apostrophe in Britain.
February 2, 2009
sarra commented on the word apostrophe
skip, you missed the deliberate irony in that headline!
I am slightly miffed that no-one's reported on my bestickering, long ago, an apostropheless St Philip's Place (also Birmingham). You heard it here first. Or last.
February 2, 2009
sionnach commented on the word apostrophe
So the plural of datum is dat'a?
February 2, 2009
bilby commented on the word apostrophe
Sounds like you have a lot more guerilla bestickering ahead, sarra.
February 2, 2009
manilamac commented on the word apostrophe
Of course, I found apostrophe and adumbrate, but there were no links for what I was really looking for: apostrophized and adumbrated. Writers, in addition to being endlessly interested in rhetoric, are often at sea seeking interesting words for the attribution of quotations. I recently encountered, in adjacent paragraphs, one quoted person who adumbrated his quote, followed by a second person who apostrophized his. Wow! I wanted to check this out. Naturally, there are those who would have us substitute “said” for both these words, but never mind those people.
Then, there’s the fascinating relation between adumbrated and chiaroscuro. All of these connections were made in my head, not on the site. For instance, none of the examples for apostrophe had reference to rhetoric; there were no rhetorical examples. What’s a writer to do? Could you help? Maybe there literary geniuses out there just waiting for such revelations. What? I’m supposed to find those examples and send them to you? We’ll see.
August 4, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word apostrophe
Etymologically: apo-strophe, a from-turning (or turning-from, I guess)
September 7, 2009
bilby commented on the word apostrophe
Speaking of stickers, help is at hand.
November 7, 2009
reesetee commented on the word apostrophe
At last! :-D
November 8, 2009
jorge999 commented on the word apostrophe
great link bilby, you deserve an apost trophy.
November 9, 2009
reesetee commented on the word apostrophe
A study of the evolution of the apostrophe is underway.
Edit: Link isn't working, so here it is: http://bit.ly/bzaBe8
February 10, 2010
grant_barrett commented on the word apostrophe
Thanks for the cool article. I just tweeted it.
http://twitter.com/wordnik/status/8866809162
February 10, 2010
Glennon commented on the word apostrophe
As a few people noted, these examples are of the use of the symbol (') apostrophe and not of the more esoteric definition of a speaker digressing from his or her address into a second person address of an absent, possibly imaginary, person. To that end how about this example of apostrophe: "Perhaps when he planned his address for the 2012 Republican convention, Mr. Eastwood believed his use of apostrophe in addressing an invisible President Obama in an empty chair would both entertain and illustrate his understanding of the President's political positions. What it has done, instead, is ressurect this rhetorical device in a flurry of political satire."
September 17, 2012