(phonology) the loss of sounds from within a word (as in `fo'c'sle' for `forecastle')
The loss or elision of a sound, from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable. For example, the change of cannot to can't, never to ne'er, Latin calidus to caldus, or the pronunciation of the -cester ending in placenames as -ster (for example, Leicester pronounced Leister or Lester, and Worcester pronounced Wooster).