An Apheresis

1. (linguistics, prosody) Elision, suppression, or complete loss of a letter or sound (syllable) from the beginning of a word, such as the development of special from especial; procope.[1]

Synonyms: pheresis, procope

Hyponym: aphesis

Coordinate term: syncope

2. (medicine, specific, still current) The removal of blood from a patient, and the removal of certain components (such as platelets) from that blood, followed by the transfusion of the filtered blood back to the donor (patient).

Synonyms: pheresis, hemapheresis

3. (medicine, general, obsolete) Extirpation or extraction of a superfluity (especially a pathological one) from the body, especially blood.