Shortened by removing one or more sounds or letters from the end of a word, as when 'laboratory' becomes 'lab'.
From apocope, derived from Greek apocopē (apo- 'away' + koptein 'to cut'). The term entered English linguistics in the 16th century to describe this specific type of word shortening.
Your brain does this all the time—'fridge' from 'refrigerator,' 'plane' from 'airplane'—and linguists call it apocopation. It's how languages naturally evolve when people get lazy with pronunciation!
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