In phonology, apocope (from the Greek apokoptein "cutting off", from apo- "away from" and koptein "to cut")'s the loss of one or more sounds from the end of a word, and especially the loss of an unstressed vowel. Historical sound change In historical phonetics, the term apocope's often (but not always) limited to the loss of an unstressed vowel. Loss of an unstressed vowel (with nasal) Vulgar Latin pan[em] > Spanish pan ("bread") Vulgar Latin lup[um] > French loup ("wolf") Loss of other sounds… (More on Apocope)