apostrophic

1 of 2

adjective (1)

ap·​os·​troph·​ic ˌa-pə-ˈsträ-fik 

: of, relating to, or involving the written use of the punctuation mark ʼ to signify contraction, possession, or pluralization

an apostrophic error

A similar apostrophic absence is underway in the names of organisations, where we have Melbourne Writers Festival but Sydney Writers' Festival, Brisbane Magistrates Court but Melbourne Magistrates' Court.

—Tiger Webb

Ladies and gentlemen, when we find ourselves in a world where a newsagent's placard can read 'Gleny's Kinnock Lead's Teachers Strike', the Apocalypse is near and something must be done. Apostrophic anarchists, deliberately disrupting the apostrophe's function as part of their wider plan to destroy English grammar, must be weeded out root and branch.

—Richard Littlejohn

apostrophic

2 of 2

adjective (2)

: of, relating to, or involving the use of apostrophe (see apostrophe entry 2) to address a usually absent person or a usually personified thing rhetorically

There are the great apostrophic hymns to the surging surf as metaphor for the passions of the human heart …

—David Harris

The book is in apostrophic form, written in the voice of a wildly successful, if markedly eccentric artist, Anna Brown, to her partner, the absent John, who has also been the subject of the majority of her paintings over the years.

—Alex Preston

In their ambiguous status as inanimate bodies and as disembodied souls, the dead readily become subjects of apostrophic address.

—Alan Richardson

Word History

Etymology

Adjective (1)

apostrophe entry 1 + -ic entry 1

Adjective (2)

apostrophe entry 2 + -ic entry 1

First Known Use

Adjective (1)

1788, in the meaning defined above

Adjective (2)

1782, in the meaning defined above