Pl. ellipses. Also 7 elipsis, 8 elleipsis, pl. ellipsises. [a. L. ellīpsis, ad. Gr. ἔλλειψις: see ELLIPSE.]
1. = ELLIPSE. Now rare.
1570. Billingsley, Euclid, XII. xv. 376. This section is a Conicall section, which is called Ellipsis.
1656. Hobbes, Six Lessons, Wks. 1845, VII. 316. If the section be an ellipsis … you may use the same method.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 272. The Ellipsis or Oval ACBD.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., 229. The Planets … could not possibly acquire such Revolutions … in Ellipses very little Eccentric.
1696. Whiston, Th. Earth, I. (1722), 14. Comets’ Ellipses come near to Parabola’s.
1705–30. S. Gale, in Bibl. Topogr. Brit., III. 47. A fine bowling-green cut into an ellipsis.
1854. Tomlinson, trans. Arago’s Astron., 119. It had traversed … an ellipsis.
† b. attrib. Obs.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 273. These Ellipsis, or Semi-Oval Arches … are sometimes made over Gate-ways.
2. Gram. The omission of one or more words in a sentence, which would be needed to complete the grammatical construction or fully to express the sense; concr. an instance of such omission.
1612. Brinsley, Pos. Parts (1669), 67. The first of the Substantives is oft understood by a figure called Ellipsis.
a. 1667. Cowley, Davideis, I. Notes (1710), I. 368. It is an Elleipsis, or leaving something to be understood by the Reader.
1727. Pope, &c. Art Sinking, 115. The ellipsis, or speech by half-words [is the peculiar talent] of ministers and politicians.
1789. Belsham, Ess., I. ii. 25. Violent ellipses and inversions of language.
1789. Bentham, Princ. Legisl., xviii. § 27, note. The ancient lawyers in the construction of their appellatives have indulged themselves in much harsher ellipsises without scruple.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 476. The ellipsis was now filled up with words of high import.
1874. H. R. Reynolds, John Bapt., ii. 112. Grammatical roughnesses or ellipses.
† 3. Formerly used as the name of the dash (—) employed in writing or printing to indicate the omission of letters in a word. Obs.
1824. L. Murray, Eng. Gram., I. 413. An Ellipsis … is used, when some letters in a word, or some words in a verse, are omitted: as ‘The k—g’ for ‘the king.’
