apostrophise

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   in rhetoric, to address an absent person, an abstract idea, or an inanimate thing directly

   In the monologue, the speaker pauses to apostrophise the moon as though it could answer.

2. 2
   verb

   British spelling of apostrophize: to mark a word, letter, or number with an apostrophe

   The copy editor had to apostrophise the shortened year as '24.

Formed from apostrophe + the British verb-forming suffix -ise. The rhetorical noun came through Latin from Greek apostrophe, 'a turning away,' because a speaker turns from the audience to address someone absent or something personified. The punctuation sense is a later use of the same English verb.

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