Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Rhotacism

Rhotacism , noun

[Greek "rwtaki`zein to use the letter r (ρ) overmuch: compare French rhotacisme.]

(Phylol.) An oversounding, or a misuse, of the letter r; specifically (Phylol.), the tendency, exhibited in the Indo-European languages, to change s to r, as wese to were.