‖ ellipsis
(ɛˈlɪpsɪs)
Pl. ellipses (-siːz). Also 7 elipsis, 8 elleipsis, pl. ellipsises.
[a. L. ellīpsis, ad. Gr. ἔλλειψις: see ellipse.]
1. = ellipse. Now rare.
| 1570 Billingsley Euclid xii. xv. 376 This section is a Conicall section, which is called Ellipsis. 1656 Hobbes Six Less. Wks. 1845 VII. 316 If the section be an ellipsis..you may use the same method. 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 272 The Ellipsis or Oval ABCD. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. 229 The planets..could not possibly acquire such revolutions..in ellipses very little eccentric. 1696 Whiston Th. Earth i. (1722) 14 Comets' Ellipses come near to Parabola's. 1705–30 S. Gale in Bibl. Topogr. Brit. III. 47 A fine bowling-green cut into an ellipsis. 1854 Tomlinson tr. Arago's Astron. 119 It had traversed..an ellipsis. |
† b. attrib. Obs.
| 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 273 These Ellipsis, or Semi-Oval Arches..are sometimes made over Gate-ways. |
2. Gram. The omission of one or more words in a sentence, which would be needed to complete the grammatical construction or fully to express the sense; concr. an instance of such omission.
| 1612 Brinsley Pos. Parts (1669) 67 The first of the Substantives is oft understood by a figure called Ellipsis. a 1667 Cowley Davideis i. Notes (1710) I. 368 It is an Elleipsis, or leaving something to be understood by the Reader. 1727 Pope, &c. Art Sinking 115 The ellipsis, or speech by half-words [is the peculiar talent] of ministers and politicians. 1789 Belsham Ess. I. ii. 25 Violent ellipses and inversions of language. 1789 Bentham Princ. Legisl. xviii. §27 note. The ancient lawyers in the construction of their appellatives have indulged themselves in much harsher ellipsises without scruple. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 476 The ellipsis was now filled up with words of high import. 1874 H. Reynolds John Bapt. ii. 112 Grammatical roughnesses or ellipses. |
† 3. Formerly used as the name of the dash (—) employed in writing or printing to indicate the omission of letters in a word. Obs.
| 1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. I. 413 An Ellipsis..is used, when some letters in a word, or some words in a verse, are omitted: as ‘The k—g’ for ‘the king’. |