apostrophe

Pronunciation

• Classical: [aˈpɔs.trɔ.pʰeː]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [aˈpɔs.tro.fe]^[1]

Forms

apostrophē f (genitive apostrophēs); first declension^[1] Also apostropha, -ae (first declension).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀποστροφή (apostrophḗ, “a turning away”),^[5][1][6] from ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō, “to turn away”).^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Quintilian, for the rhetorical figure in which the speaker turns away from the judges and addresses his opponent or someone else.^[7][2][6] Quintilian also renders it in Latin as sermō āversus ā iūdice, “speech turned away from the judge”, and ōrātiō āversa.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

It stayed a term of the grammarians and rhetoricians: Servius uses it in his commentary on Virgil,^[2] the scholia on Cicero point out an apt apostrophē in his speeches,^[4] and Martianus Capella defines it as a pointed turning of the speech on someone, frequent in Cicero and a noble figure.^[4][3] Ambrose and Jerome use it in their commentaries on Scripture for a sudden turning to address Judas or the Lord.^[4]

Medieval Latin used it of any address or speech turned to someone, present or absent, and Amalarius of a change, such as a person's conversion through penance.^[8][9] From about 1100 it also named a neume shaped like an apostrophe,^[10][8] and British grammarians used apostropha for the mark of an elided vowel as well.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian names the figure.^[7][6]
• c. 400 AD – Servius uses it in his commentary on Virgil.^[2][6]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella defines it.^[4][6]
• c. 1100 – Frutolf lists it among the neumes.^[10][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) Apostrophe, a figure in which the speaker turns from the judges or hearers to address another person or thing.^[7][2][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) An address, a speech turned to someone; a change.^[8][9]
3. (Medieval Latin, music) A neume shaped like an apostrophe.^[10][8]

Usage notes

The mark of an elided vowel is usually apostrophus, from the Greek adjective ἀπόστροφος, but British sources treat both words under apostropha.^[11] Wiktionary treats apostrophē as a form of apostropha.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b c Lexicon musicum Latinum medii aevi (1992–), Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften; online ed. Wörterbuchnetz
11. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press