apostrophus

1. (archaic) The omission of a vowel or syllable from a word, usually indicated by the apostrophe symbol ( ' ). examples: 'til, can'tExamples: "Vowels suffer also this apostrophus before the consonant h."; "Not that any examples are wanting to prove that the ancients did use the apostrophus in prose; for it was scarecely possible for them not to do so in many instances;"; "Out of one word, the apostrophus is most usual in poesie;"archaic

2. (archaic) The apostrophe symbol used to mark this elision.Examples: "The apostrophus or mark of contraction, is the same with the comma, onely the difference is of place; for, this stands not in the line, but over the upper part thereof, where the contraction is:"; "In the Greek, as in other languages, a short vowel at the end of a word before another vowel, is thrown out by elision, and the apostrophus ' is placed as a mark or sign over the empty space;"; "This apocope is denoted by the apostrophus ( ' ),"archaic

3. (music, historical) An open notehead ( ~ ) or an apostrophe ( ' ) used as a neume to mark a low, unaccented syllable at the beginning of a phrase or a short quick syllableExamples: "You find not the apostrophus, and so miss the accent. Let me supervise the canzonet."; "In the early Graduals Benevento VI. 38 and 40, the apostrophus is common in syllabic passages in sequences, tropes and prosulae."; "In transcriptions from Ben 34, I have not distinguished the apostrophus from regular notes."historical