apheresis

• aphaeresis (UK, Canada)
• aphæresis (chiefly archaic)

From Latin aphaeresis, from Ancient Greek ἀφαίρεσις (aphaíresis, “a taking away”), from ἀφαιρέω (aphairéō) (from ἀφ- (aph-), variant of ἀπό (apó, “off, away from”) before an aspirated vowel) + αἱρέω (hairéō, “to take; to snatch”)) + -σις (-sis, suffix forming nouns of action); the grammatical sense developed in Latin.^[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: əfîʹrĭsĭs, IPA^(key): /əˈfɪəɹɪsɪs/,^[1]
• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈfɛɹəsɪs/ (linguistics)
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌæfəˈɹisɪs/ (medicine)

apheresis (countable and uncountable, plural aphereses) (US, Canada)

2. (phonetics, linguistics, prosody) Elision, suppression, or complete loss of a letter or sound (syllable) from the beginning of a word, such as the development of special from especial.^[1]

   Synonyms: pheresis, procope

   Hyponym: aphesis

   Coordinate terms: syncope, apocope, elision, clipping, abbreviation

4. (medicine, specific, still current) The removal of blood from a patient, and the removal of certain components (such as platelets) from that blood, followed by the transfusion of the filtered blood back to the donor (patient).

   Synonyms: pheresis, hemapheresis

   Coordinate term: plasmapheresis

5. (medicine, general, obsolete) Extirpation or extraction of a superfluity (especially a pathological one) from the body, especially blood.

   Hyponym: bloodletting

• Apheresis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Apheresis (linguistics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Pharisees