I meant to say thanks for the suggestion jheem. It pointed us in the right direction.

“Elision” may indeed be the word I'm trying to remember, AnnaStropic. It certainly seems to fit the criteria. But for some reason it still doesn’t sound quite right.

It may be that I have another word stuck in my head that I also can’t remember. When looking up the word apocope I came across the word aphaeresis, and thought it sounded very close to the word I was trying to remember. But, of course, aphaeresis is not the right word either. I guess that’s what I get for taking a Rhetoric class, a Linguistics class, and a History of the English Language class at the same time – too many terms all at once.

Although I sold the book, I know I still have my notes. I may be able to find them and find the term there.