s a peculiar name given to a kind of song or hymn, anciently used in churches. The apostolicum is mentioned by Greg. Thaumaturgus as used in his time. Vossius understands it as spoken of the apostles' creed: Suicer thinks this impossible, because the creed was then unknown in the churches of the East.

APOTROPE (ἀποτρόπε), in Rhetoric, a figure by which a person who is either absent or dead is addressed as if he were present and attentive to us. It also signifies a diversion from the main subject of a discourse; as when an advocate, in an argument to the jury, turns and addresses some incidental remark to the court.

APOTROPE, in Grammar, the contraction of a word by the use of a comma; as called for called, tho' for though.