I am looking for a comprehensive list of Apheretic forms in English. I remember seeing in old books words being prefixed with apostrophes which do not require them in modern writing, but can't remember many instances.
Wikipedia provides a list of apocopations but none for apheresis.
(The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories, 1991)
"Aphaeresis has given us a number of new words, like drawing-room (from withdrawing-room), fend (from defend; whence fender), sport (from disport), and stain (from distain). A number are aphetic in the narrow sense: pert (from now obsolete apert, going back ultimately to Latin appertus 'open'), peal (from appeal), mend (from amend), fray (from affray), the verb ply (from apply), the adjective live (from alive), spy (from espy), and tend (from both attend and intend). In the above cases, significant semantic development followed the aphaeresis, so that one does not normally connect in one's mind the shortened and the original longer forms."
More examples in the Wikipedia entry on Apheresis
Greek episkopos > Vulgar Latin [e]biscopu > English bishop
English [a]cute > cute
English [E]gyptian > Gyptian > Gypsy
English [a]mend > mend
English [e]scape + goat > scapegoat
Old French evaniss > English vanish
Old French estable > English stable
Old French estrange > English strange
English esquire > squire
Akkadian Ashuraya > Shuraya
