prosiopesis

pros·i·o·pe·sis
P3R1O1S1I1O1P3E1S1I1S1
UK/ˌpɹɒsɪəʊˈpiːsɪs/US/ˌpɹɑsioʊˈpisɪs/

Ellipsis of the beginning of a grammatical construction, common in informal speech and spontaneous written electronic communication, frequently occurring in stock phrases and interjections.

Scrabble 15

Meanings

nounprosiopesis (countable and uncountable, plural prosiopeses)

plural prosiopeses

  1. abbreviationcountableellipsisuncountablegrammarEllipsis of the beginning of a grammatical construction, common in informal speech and spontaneous written electronic communication, frequently occurring in stock phrases and interjections.

    The students of English were making good progress in getting to grips with the intricacies of informal constructions, peppering their conversations with proverbial idioms and substituting stock phrases like “Good morning!” and “Thank you.” with prosiopeses like “Morning!” and “‛Kyou.”

    1 more example

    Traditional rhetoric was much concerned with the phenomenon of elision, because of the implications for constructing well-formed metrical lines, which would scan well. In rhetorical terminology, an elision in word-initial position was known as aphaeresis or prosiopesis, in word-medial position as syncope, and in word-final position as apocope. A similar classification was made for the opposite of elision, intrusion.

    2003, David Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics, 5th edition, Wiley–Blackwell, →ISBN, page 159, →ISBN

Origin

Coined in 1917 by the Danish linguist Jens Otto Harry Jespersen: pro- (“before”) (from the Ancient Greek preposition πρό (pró)) + σιώπησις (siṓpēsis, “taciturnity”) (from σιωπάω (siōpáō, “to be silent”)) + -σις (-sis), (-sis, suffix forming nouns of action).

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with prosiopesis

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Cite this entry
APA

prosiopesis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prosiopesis

MLA

“prosiopesis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prosiopesis. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “prosiopesis,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prosiopesis.

Source: prosiopesis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.