synaesthesia sound symbolism synaloepha [Grk ‘stopping of a hiatus, coalescing’]

Contraction of two vowels, in which a vowel in final position runs into the following vowel in initial position through (a) elision (=loss of both vowels) (e.g. in Fr. masc. article before initial vowel: I’ air instead of *le air ‘air’), (b) synaeresis (=contraction of two contiguous vowels to a diphthong) (e.g. Lat. vidēre> Span. ver ‘see’), or (c) contraction (=contraction to a single long vowel) (Goth. maiza, OE māra>Mod. Eng. more. ( also language change)

In E.Benveniste’s terminology, a semantic unit in French consisting of several lexemes that are syntactically related to one another, in which the determined element precedes the determining element and every lexeme retains its original separate individual meaning: machine-à-coudre ‘sewing machine,’ arc-en-ciel ‘rainbow.’