Apostrophe

Apostrophe (Greek, a turning away), in Rhetoric, a figure of speech in which the speaker breaks off from his address to the audience and makes an appeal to some individual either present or absent, or to some thing animate or inanimate. This form of oratory is frequently used by the poets. The term is also used to designate the mark (') for one or more letters omitted, as tho' for though, 'twas for it was, and especially in the possessive case where an e is dropped out, as "Lord's" for "Lordes."