Apostrophized

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To signify a speaker addressing someone or something directly by utilizing a punctuation mark that replaces omitted letters in a term or phrase
2. Marked text by inserting an apostrophe to indicate omitted letters or possession
3. Inserted the punctuation mark that shows contractions or ownership in words

Etymology: The word "apostrophized" is simply the past tense and past participle of "apostrophize," so its history is really the history of "apostrophe" plus the verb-forming ending "-ize." The noun "apostrophe" came into English from Greek "apostrophos," meaning a turning away, and in rhetoric it named the figure of speech in which a speaker suddenly turns from the audience to address someone absent or an abstract thing. The punctuation mark took its name from that same Greek root, because its job of marking omitted letters was seen as a kind of turning away from the full spelling. The verb "apostrophize" was formed in English by adding "-ize" to "apostrophe." That ending traces back through Late Latin "-izare" and Ancient Greek "-izein," where it formed verbs meaning to make or to do something, and it passed into English through Middle French and Middle English. So the verb is an English-built word with Greek and Latin parts, and "apostrophized" simply applies the regular past-tense ending to it.

Synonyms: apostrophized