In bugle, for bugle-horn, lit. wild-ox-horn, Old Fr. bugle, Lat. buculus, a diminutive of bos, ox, we have perhaps rather an ellipsis, like waterproof (coat), than a clipped form—
"Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet 'tis early morn:
Leave me here, and when you want me, sound upon the bugle-horn."
(Locksley Hall.)
Patter is no doubt for paternoster—
"Fitz-Eustace, you, with Lady Clare,
May bid your beads and patter prayer."
(Marmion, vi. 27.)
and the use of the word marble for a toy sometimes made of that stone makes it very probable that the alley, most precious of marbles, is short for alabaster.
Less frequently the final syllable is selected, e.g., bus for omnibus, loo for lanterloo, variously spelt in the 17th and 18th centuries—
"Ev'n mighty Pam,[51] that Kings and Queens o'erthrew,
And mow'd down armies in the fights of lu."
(Rape of the Lock, iii. 62.)