the gradual and inadvertent loss of an unstressed vowel or syllable from the beginning of a word, as in the case of squire (from esquire) bishop (from episcopus), migraine (from hemikrania), as distinct from the conscious suppression of a vowel or syllable: compare aphaeresis
aphetic /-ʹfetik/ adj
aphetically adv
[Greek aphesis letting go, from apo- + Greek hienai to throw]