Definition:
(1) Mark of punctuation used to indicate possessive case or omission of a letter from a word. Adjective: apostrophic. See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "turning away"Examples (definition #2):
- "O western wind, when wilt thou blow
That the small rain down can rain?"
(anonymous, 16th c.) - "Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again . . .."
(Paul Simon, "The Sounds of Silence") - "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art"
(John Keats) - "Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."
(James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) - "Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own."
(Lorenz Hart, "Blue Moon") - "I believe it is the lost wisdom of my grandfather
Whose ways were his own and who died before I could ask.
"Forerunner, I would like to say, silent pilot,
Little dry death, future,
Your indirections are as strange to me
As my own. I know so little that anything
You might tell me would be a revelation."
(W.S. Merwin, "Sire") - "O stranger of the future!
O inconceivable being!
whatever the shape of your house,
however you scoot from place to place,
no matter how strange and colorless the clothes you may wear,
I bet nobody likes a wet dog either.
I bet everyone in your pub,
even the children, pushes her away."
(Billy Collins, "To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years from Now") - "Dear Ella
Our Special First Lady of Song
You gave your best for so long."
(Kenny Burrell, "Dear Ella")
Pronunciation: ah-POS-tro-fee
Also Known As: turne tale, aversio, aversion
