vanish

Etymology

Aphetic for obsolete evanish, from Middle English vanyshen, evaneschen, from Old French esvanir, esvaniss- (modern French évanouir), from Vulgar Latin *exvanire (“to vanish, disappear, to fade out”), from Latin evanescere, from vanus (“empty”). Doublet of evanesce.

verb

1. To become invisible or to move out of view unnoticed.
2. (mathematics) To become equal to zero.
   The function f such as f(x)=x² vanishes at x=0.
3. (transitive) to disappear; to kidnap
   And as if to prove it, one of his friends was vanished and was never seen again. The guy got in a taxi one night, and no one ever saw him ever again. 2011, Patrick Meaney, Our Sentence Is Up: Seeing Grant Morrison's the Invisibles, Sequart, page 330
   It was whispered that men had been “vanished” by the Line and returned everted. Turned inside out. 2004, John Varley, The John Varley Reader, Penguin

noun

1. (phonetics) The brief terminal part of a vowel or vocal element, differing more or less in quality from the main part.
   a as in ale ordinarily ends with a vanish of i as in ill.
   o as in old ordinarily ends with a vanish of oo as in foot.
   The median stres may also on a protracted quantity , slightly resemble respectively that of the radical and of the vanish , by sudenly enlarging in the course of the prolongation and gradualy diminishing ; and by the reverse 1827, James Rush, The Philosophy of the Human Voice
2. A magic trick in which something seems to disappear.
   The French drop is a well-known vanish involving sleight of hand.