Gram. [ad. Gr. ἔκλειψις, noun of action f. ἐκλείπειν to leave out; in sense 1 perh. confused with ellipsis; in sense 2 app. suggested by ECLIPSE in fig. sense ‘to obscure.’]
† 1. An omission of words needful fully to express the sense. Obs.
1538. Coverdale, Prol. N. T. The cause … is partly the figure called eclipsis.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xii. (Arb.), 175, marg. Eclipsis or the Figure of default.
† b. (See quot.) Obs.
1727. W. Mather, Yng. Man’s Comp., 38. Eclipsis, is a piece of a Line drawn to denote that some part of a Verse or Sentence cited, is left out … As, —— ’Tis still the Miser’s Lot. The young Fool spends all that the old Knave got.
2. In Irish (Sc. Gaelic, Manx) Grammar: see quot.
1845. J. O’Donovan, Irish Gram., 58. Eclipsis in Irish Grammar may be defined the suppression of the sounds of certain radical consonants, by prefixing others of the same organ.
