Crasis
/ˈkreɪ.sɪs/noun
A blending or contraction of two vowels or words into one in pronunciation.
Did you know?Crasis comes from Greek grammar, where separate words could be fused into a single spoken form, showing how language itself has long treated sound as something alchemically mergeable.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ker-
“to mix, to scatter”
Ancient Greek
Greek
κρᾶσις (krâsis)
“a mixing, blending, or tempering”
Classical Greek
Greek
κρᾶσις
“the fusion of two vowels or words into one in speech”
Late Latin
Latin
crasis
“a grammatical contraction or blending”
Modern English
English
crasis
“the contraction of two vowels or words into one”