apostrophe

See also: Apostrophe and apostrophé

English

WOTD – 13 February 2007

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈpɒs.tɹə.fi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈpɑs.tɹə.fi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From French apostrophe, or Latin apostrophus, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστροφος (apóstrophos, “accent of elision”), a noun use of an adjective from ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō, “I turn away”), from ἀπό (apó, “away from”) + στρέφω (stréphō, “to turn”).

Alternative forms

• apostrophë, apostrophy

Noun

apostrophe (plural apostrophes)

2. (orthography) The text character ’, which serves as a punctuation mark in various languages and as a diacritical mark in certain rare contexts.
   • 2021, Claire Cock-Starkey, Hyphens & Hashtags, Bodleian Library, page 30:

     Since its inception the apostrophe has been a controversial piece of punctuation.

Usage notes

In English, the apostrophe is used to mark the possessive (e.g., “my friend’s wife”), and to show the omission of letters (e.g., “my friend’s angry”) or of numbers (e.g., "during the 1960s and ’70s").

Derived terms

• apologetic apostrophe
• apostrophed
• curly apostrophe
• greengrocers' apostrophe
• greengrocer's apostrophe
• printer's apostrophe
• straight apostrophe
• typewriter apostrophe
• typographical apostrophe
• typographic apostrophe
• vertical apostrophe

 

Translations

the character ’

• Albanian: apostrof (sq) m
• Armenian: ապաթարց (hy) (apatʿarcʿ)
• Asturian: apóstrofu (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: apostrof
• Belarusian: апо́страф m (apóstraf)
• Bengali: ঊর্ধকমা (urdhokma)
• Bulgarian: апостроф (bg) m (apostrof)
• Catalan: apòstrof m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 省略符號／省略符号 (zh) (shěnglüè fúhào), 隔音符號／隔音符号 (géyīn fúhào), 省字符 (shěngzìfú), 單引號／单引号 (dānyǐnhào), 撇號／撇号 (zh) (piěhào), 頓呼／顿呼 (dùnhū)

• Cornish: kollverk m, kollverkys m pl
• Czech: apostrof (cs) m
• Danish: apostrof c
• Dutch: weglatingsteken (nl) n, apostrof (nl) f
• Esperanto: apostrofo (eo)
• Estonian: ülakoma (et)
• Finnish: heittomerkki (fi), apostrofi (fi) (rare)
• French: apostrophe (fr) f
• Galician: apóstrofo m
• Georgian: აპოსტროფი (aṗosṭropi)
• German: Apostroph (de) m, Hochkomma (de) n
• Greek: απόστροφος (el) f (apóstrofos)

  Ancient: ἀπόστροφος f (apóstrophos)

• Hungarian: aposztróf (hu), hiányjel (hu)
• Icelandic: úrfellingarmerki n
• Ido: apostrofo (io)
• Ilocano: tuldek
• Indonesian: tanda penyingkat (id)
• Interlingua: apostropho
• Irish: uaschamóg f, apastróf f
• Italian: apostrofo (it) m
• Japanese: アポストロフィー (ja) (aposutorofī), アポストロフ (ja) (aposutorofu), 省略符号 (しょうりゃくふごう, shōryaku fugō)
• Kazakh: апостроф (apostrof)
• Korean: 아포스트로피 (aposeuteuropi)
• Kyrgyz: апостроф (ky) (apostrof)
• Latin: apostrophus f
• Latvian: apostrofs m
• Lithuanian: apostrofas m
• Luxembourgish: Apostroph m
• Macedonian: апостроф m (apostrof)
• Malayalam: വിശ്ലേഷം (ml) (viślēṣaṃ)
• Manx: apostrophee
• Maori: pakini
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: apostrof m

  Nynorsk: apostrof m

• Persian: آپوستروف‎ (fa) (âpostrof)
• Polish: apostrof (pl) m
• Portuguese: apóstrofo (pt) m
• Romanian: apostrof (ro) n
• Russian: апо́стро́ф (ru) m (apóstróf)
• Scottish Gaelic: ascair m, asgair m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: а̀построф m, изо̀ставник m

  Latin: àpostrof (sh) m, izòstavnik (sh) m

• Sinhalese: උඩු කොමා (uḍu komā)
• Slovak: apostrof m
• Slovene: opuščaj (sl) m, apostrof (sl) m
• Spanish: apóstrofo (es) m
• Swedish: apostrof (sv)
• Tagalog: kudlit
• Tajik: апостроф (apostrof)
• Thai: อะพอสทรอฟี (à-pɔ́ɔs-trɔɔ-fîi)
• Turkish: kesme işareti (tr)
• Ukrainian: апостроф (uk) m (apostrof)
• Uzbek: apostrof (uz)
• Vietnamese: dấu lược
• Welsh: collnod m, sillgoll f
• Yiddish: אַפּאָסטראָף‎ m (apostrof)

See also

• apostrophe on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Punctuation

• apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ )
• curly brackets or braces (US) ( { } )
• square brackets or brackets (US) ( [ ] )
• colon ( : )
• comma ( , )
• dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― )
• ellipsis ( … )
• exclamation mark ( ! )
• fraction slash ( ⁄ )
• guillemets ( « » ) ( ‹ › )
• hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ )
• interpunct ( · )
• interrobang (rare) ( ‽ )
• brackets or parentheses (US, Canada) ( ( ) )
• full stop or period (US, Canada) ( . )
• question mark ( ? )
• quotation marks (formal) ( ‘ ’ ‚ ) ( “ ” „ )
• quotation marks (informal, computing) ( " ) ( ' )
• semicolon ( ; )
• slash or stroke (UK) ( / )
• space ( ] [ )

Etymology 2

From Latin apostrophe, from Ancient Greek ἀποστροφή (apostrophḗ), from ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō, “I turn away”), from ἀπό (apó) + στρέφω (stréphō, “I turn”).

Noun

apostrophe (countable and uncountable, plural apostrophes)

2. (rhetoric) A sudden exclamatory piece of dialogue addressed to someone or something, especially absent.
   • [1835, L[arret] Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, →OCLC, page 28:

     Apostrophe a bold digression makes,
     Mov'd by some sudden thought the theme awakes.]

   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXXIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 139:

     The warm apostrophe of Riccardini to this little representative of his parents, whom he called "the son of his love, the child of his old age, the gift of his beloved niece, on the behalf of his angel-daughter," affected them all;...

Derived terms

• apostrophic, apostrophically
• apostrophize

Related terms

• catastrophe

Translations

sudden piece of dialogue

• Armenian: ապաթարց (hy) (apatʿarcʿ)
• Asturian: apóstrofe f
• Bulgarian: апостроф (bg) m (apostrof)
• Catalan: apòstrofe m
• Czech: apostrofa f
• Danish: apostrofe c
• Dutch: apostrof (nl) f
• Finnish: apostrofi (fi)
• French: apostrophe (fr) f
• Galician: apóstrofe f
• German: Apostrophe (de) f
• Greek: αποστροφή (el) f (apostrofí)
• Interlingua: apostrophe
• Irish: aitheasc m, apastróf f
• Lithuanian: apostrofa f
• Macedonian: апостро́фа f (apostrófa)
• Polish: apostrofa (pl) f
• Portuguese: apóstrofe (pt) f
• Romanian: apostrof (ro) n
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: апо̀строфа f

  Roman: apòstrofa (sh) f

• Spanish: apóstrofe (es) m or f
• Swedish: apostrof (sv) ?
• Welsh: cyfarchiad (cy) m

Anagrams

• protophase

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.pɔs.tʁɔf/
• Homophones: apostrophent, apostrophes

• Audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Latin apostrophus, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστροφος (apóstrophos, “accent of elision”), a noun use of an adjective from ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō, “to turn away”).

Noun

apostrophe f (plural apostrophes)

1. (orthography) apostrophe

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin apostrophus, from Ancient Greek ἀποστροφή (apostrophḗ), from ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō, “to turn away”), from ἀπό (apó) + στρέφω (stréphō, “to turn”).

Noun

apostrophe f (plural apostrophes)

1. (rhetoric) apostrophe

Related terms

• apostropher

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

apostrophe

1. inflection of apostropher:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “apostrophe”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.