Aph'e·sis noun [ Greek ... a letting go; ... + ... to let go.] The loss of a short unaccented vowel at the beginning of a word; -- the result of a phonetic process; as, squire for esquire . New Eng. Dict. Found on http://www.encyclo.co.uk/webster/A/101
noun the gradual disappearance of an initial (usually unstressed) vowel or syllable as in `squire` for `esquire` Found on https://www.encyclo.co.uk/local/20974