Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HI-A'TUS, n. [L. from hio, to open or gape, Gr. χαω.]

1. An opening; an aperture; a gap; a chasm.
2. The opening of the mouth in reading or speaking, when a word ends with a vowel, and the following word begins with a vowel. Pope.
3. A defect; a chasm in a manuscript, where some part is lost or effaced. Encyc.