syncope
/ˈsɪŋ.kə.pi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.33 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "[…]; on the contrary, all syllables subject in the same way to elision, apocope, syncope, and slurring must have the same degree of stress (i.e. they must be alike unaccented) whether preceded by short or by long root-syllables."
- "Sometimes, without any apparent cause, I sank, little by little, into a condition of semi-syncope, or half swoon; and, in this condition, without pain, without ability to stir, or, strictly speaking, to think, but with a dull lethargic consciousness of life and of the presence of those who surrounded my bed, I remained, until the crisis of the disease restored me, suddenly, to perfect sensation."
- "Schneider, the father of rhinology, mentions a woman in whom the odor of orange-flowers produced syncope."
- "[…]the rapidly-whitening face, the miserable fixed smile, meant a syncope within the next few bars."
- "She was a volatile creature, full of mischievous surprise: at their first music practice, after playing over some hymns on the pipe-organ, she burst into jazz, filling the quiet grove with the clamorous syncope of Paddy-Paws, a favourite song that summer."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱómder.? Proto-Indo-European *sem-der.? Proto-Hellenic *ksún Ancient Greek σύν (sún) Ancient Greek συν- (sun-) Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep-? Proto-Hellenic *kopt͏̌ō Ancient Greek κόπτω (kóptō) Ancient Greek συγκόπτω (sunkóptō) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-ā́ Ancient Greek -ᾱ (-ā) Ancient Greek -η (-ē) Ancient Greek συγκοπή (sunkopḗ)bor. Latin syncopēlbor. English syncope Learned borrowing from Late Latin syncopē, from Ancient Greek συγκοπή (sunkopḗ), from συγκόπτω (sunkóptō, “cut up”) + -η (-ē, nominalization suffix), from σύν (sún, “beside, with”) + κόπτω (kóptō, “strike, cut off”). Partly continues the (near-)doublets syncopis and sincopin, both from the Old French sincopin (“faintness”) (itself from Late Latin accusative syncopen), with the pathological meaning "a loss of consciousness accompanied by a weak pulse", attested from the fifteenth century. Usage in the form syncope, with the phonological meaning "contraction of a word by omission of middle sounds or letters" attested from the 1520s. Syncopis and sincopin were "re-Latinized" to the form syncope in English in the sixteenth century. The musical usage first occurs after the 1660s, following the musical usage of syncopation and syncopate.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsɪŋ.kə.pi/
- British English: /ˈsɪŋ.kə.pi/