Apostrophos

Apostrophos is a term used in linguistics and rhetoric to refer to two related phenomena associated with the word apostrophe. The word itself comes from Greek apostrophos, from apo- “away” + strophē “turn,” literally meaning “a turning away,” and it entered Latin and English in reference to both the punctuation mark and the rhetorical device.

In punctuation, apostrophos denotes the apostrophe—the small mark used in many scripts to indicate omitted letters in contractions (such as do not, it’s), to signal certain grammatical omissions, and to mark various abbreviations. The modern typographic form includes straight and curly variants, and its encoding in Unicode includes U+0027 (the ASCII apostrophe) and U+2019 (the right single quotation mark). In Greek linguistics and typography, a dedicated apostrophe-like sign has historically signaled elision and other textual features, though contemporary usage and conventions vary by language and orthographic tradition.

In rhetoric, an apostrophe is a figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses an absent or imaginary person, a dead or personified entity, or an abstract concept. This direct address often carries heightened emotion or emphasis and is common in poetry, drama, and prose across many languages.

The term’s dual usage—punctuation and rhetorical device—reflects its broad role in written and spoken language. While the specifics of how apostrophos functions can differ by language and period, its core idea remains the same: a marked turning away from the present audience toward a chosen addressee or a contracted form in writing.