prosiopesis

Meanings

1. Ellipsis of the beginning of a grammatical construction, common in informal speech and spontaneous written electronic communication, frequently occurring in stock phrases and interjections.

Etymology

Coined in 1917 by the Danish linguist Jens Otto Harry Jespersen: pro- (“before”) (from the Ancient Greek preposition πρό (pró)) + σιώπησις (siṓpēsis, “taciturnity”) (from σιωπάω (siōpáō, “to be silent”)) + -σις (-sis), (-sis, suffix forming nouns of action).