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Apostrophe
What is it?



Examples
  • O maiores, quid diceretis de hac re?
  • Oh ancestors, what would you say about this matter?
  • Antony addresses Caesar's corpse immediately following the assassination in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:

      O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
      That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
      Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
      That ever lived in the tide of times.
        - Shakespeare, Julius Caesar 3.1.254-257

Answer

Turning from one audience to another. Most often, apostrophe occurs when addressing an abstraction, an inanimate object, or to the absent.