Apheresis

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Apheresis \A*pher"e*sis\ (?; 277), n. [L. aphaeresis, Gr. ?, fr.
     ? to take away; ? + ? to take.]
     1. (Gram.) The dropping of a letter or syllable from the
        beginning of a word; e. g., cute for acute.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. (Surg.) An operation by which any part is separated from
        the rest. [Obs.] --Dunglison.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  apheresis
       n 1: (linguistics) omission at the beginning of a word as in
            `coon' for `raccoon' or `till' for `until' [syn: {aphaeresis}]
       2: a procedure in which blood is drawn and separated into its
          components by dialysis; some are retained and the rest are
          returned to the donor by transfusion [syn: {pheresis}]