possum
See possum in American Heritage Dictionary 4
(pŏsˈəm)
noun Chiefly Southern U.S. An opossum.
Regional Note: Since English is a language that stresses some syllables and not others, weakly stressed syllables, especially those preceding strong stresses, are dropped at times. This process, called aphesis when it occurs at the beginning of a word, is more common in regional American dialects than in the more conservative Standard English, which tends to retain in pronunciation anything reflected in spelling. Although many American dialects feature aphesis, it is most famous in the dialects of the South, where it yields pronunciations such as
count of for
(on) account of, tater for
potato, possum for
opossum, and
skeeter for
mosquito.
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