apocope

1. Omitting a letter or syllable at the end of a word. A kind of metaplasm. (Silva Rhetoricae)

2. A cutting off, a figure when the last letter or syllable of a word is cut off.; abscissio, a cutting off. Apocope is a figure contrary to Paragoge, and is when the last letter or syllable of a word is cut off or taken away. (JG Smith)

3. End-cut, or apocope, next meets us: the cutting off a letter or letters from the end of a word, as seld for seldom; Pont for Pontus; Lucrece for Lucretia; obstruct for obstruction; submiss for submissive: auxiliar for auxiliary; amaze for amazement; Moroc for Morocco; addict for addicted. (Macbeth)

4. Apocope cuts off a final letter, Or syllable, to make the verse run better. (Holmes)

5. It is a figure of etymology which relates to the spelling of words, and is used of sutting off a letter or syllable from the end of a word. (Bullinger, 162)

1. Omission of a final letter:
When Maro says "Achilli" for "Achillis"

1. Omission of a final syllable:
True art is nature to advantage dressed
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed. [for "often"]
—Alexander Pope

1. Season your admiration for awhile With an attent ear. [for "attentive"]
—Shakespeare, Hamlet 1.2.192

3. Who but hath felt the potency of the Psalm-singer's apocope? In a Brooklyn church the choir began:
" My poor pol- my poor pol- my poor polluted heart!" (Macbeth)

3. "Oh let our voice His praise exalt,
Till it arrive at heaven's vault;
Which then, perhaps, rebounding may
Echo beyond the Mexic' bay." - Andrew Marvel (Macbeth)

3. John Keats writes swelt for swelter; sult for sultry:
"With her two brothers this fair lady dwelt,
Enriched from ancestral merchandise;
And for them many a weary hand did swelt." (Macbeth)

4. Tho' for though, or although. (Holmes)

5. yon for yonder, after for afterward; Jude for Judas (Bullinger, 162)