syncope

See also: syncopé

English

Alternative forms

• syncopé (obsolete)

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin syncopē, from Ancient Greek σγυκοπή (sgukopḗ), from συγκόπτω (sunkóptō, “cut up”) + -η (-ē, nominalization suffix), from σύν (sún, “beside, with”) + κόπτω (kóptō, “strike, cut off”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪŋ.kə.pi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: syn‧co‧pe

Noun

Examples (phonology)
cannot → can't never → ne'er Latin calidus → caldus pronunciation of the -cester ending in placenames as -ster (for example, Leicester pronounced Leister or Lester, and Worcester pronounced Wooster)

syncope (countable and uncountable, plural syncopes)

2. (linguistics, phonology, prosody) The elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable.

   Synonym: contraction

   Antonym: epenthesis

   Hypernym: metaplasm

   Coordinate term: apocope

   • 1910, Jakob Schipper, A History of English Versification‎^[1]:

     […] ; 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.

4. (biology, medicine) A loss of consciousness when someone faints.

   Synonyms: swoon, faint, fainting, lipothymia

   Coordinate terms: near-syncope, presyncope, pre-syncope, pseudosyncope

   • 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial:

     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.

   • 1896, George M. Gould, Walter Lytle Pyle, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine‎^[2]:

     Schneider, the father of rhinology, mentions a woman in whom the odor of orange-flowers produced syncope.

   • 1973, Patrick O'Brian, HMS Surprise:

     […] the rapidly-whitening face, the miserable fixed smile, meant a syncope within the next few bars.

6. (music) A missed beat or off-beat stress in music resulting in syncopation.
   • 1922, Christopher Morley, Where the Blue Begins‎^[3]:

     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.

Usage notes

Usage in the form syncope, with the phonological meaning "contraction of a word by omission of middle sounds or letters" attested from the 1520's. Doublets of said syncope with the form 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. Said syncopis / sincopin was "re-latinized" to the form syncope in English in the sixteenth century, after the linguistic use of that word was already in use. The musical usage first occurs after the 1660's, following the musical usage of syncopation and syncopate.

Derived terms

• nonsyncopated
• syncopal
• syncopate
• syncopation
• syncopic
• syncopist
• syncopize
• unsyncopated

 

Translations

absence of a sound

• Breton: meztroc'h m
• Bulgarian: синко́п m (sinkóp)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 中略語／中略语 (zhōnglüèyǔ)

• Dutch: syncope (nl) f
• Finnish: sisäheitto, synkopee (fi)
• French: syncope (fr) f
• German: Synkope (de) f
• Greek: συγκοπή (el) f (sygkopí)
• Hungarian: szinkópa (hu), szó belseji törlődés​/​hangtörlés​/​hangzótörlés​/​hangkivetés​/​magánhangzó-kivetés​/​hangelhagyás, (dated) hangugratás (hu)
• Japanese: 語中音消失 (ごちゅうおんしょうしつ, gochūon shōshitsu)
• Macedonian: си́нкопа f (sínkopa)
• Malay: lenyap bunyi, sinkope
• Occitan: sincòpa (oc) f
• Polish: synkopa (pl) f
• Portuguese: síncope (pt) m
• Russian: синко́па (ru) f (sinkópa)
• Spanish: síncopa (es) f
• Swedish: synkope (sv)
• Vietnamese: rụng âm
• Welsh: rhyngddoriad m

loss of consciousness

• Bulgarian: припадък (bg) m (pripadǎk)
• Catalan: síncope (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 昏厥 (zh) (hūnjué), 暈厥／晕厥 (zh) (yūnjué)

• Czech: mdloba f
• Finnish: pyörtyminen (fi), synkopee (fi)
• French: syncope (fr) f, pâmoison (fr) f
• Galician: trastavai m, testabau m, agavante m, dada m, desvano m
• German: Synkope (de) f
• Greek: λιποθυμία (el) f (lipothymía)
• Hebrew: עלפון m (ilafon)
• Hungarian: ájulás (hu), eszméletvesztés (hu), tudatvesztés
• Italian: sincope (it)
• Japanese: 気絶 (ja) (きぜつ, kizetsu)
• Occitan: sincòpi f, esvanida f, esvaniment m
• Persian: سنکوپ (fa) (sankup), غش (fa) (ğaš)
• Portuguese: síncope (pt) f
• Russian: о́бморок (ru) m (óbmorok), синко́па (ru) f (sinkópa)
• Scottish Gaelic: fannachadh m
• Spanish: síncope (es) m, soponcio (es) (colloquial)

missed beat or off-beat stress

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 切分音 (zh) (qiēfēnyīn)

• Czech: synkopa (cs) f
• Finnish: synkooppi (fi)
• French: syncope (fr) f
• German: Synkope (de) f
• Greek: συγκοπή (el) f (sygkopí)
• Hungarian: szinkópa (hu)
• Icelandic: brottfall (is) n
• Polish: synkopa (pl) f
• Russian: синко́па (ru) f (sinkópa)
• Spanish: síncopa (es) f
• Swedish: synkop (sv) c

Further reading

• “syncope”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “syncope”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek συγκοπή (sunkopḗ).

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

syncope f (plural syncopes, diminutive syncopetje n)

1. (linguistics, phonology, prosody) the loss or elision of a sound from the interior of a word (for example the change of Dutch veder in veer "feather"); syncope
2. (pathology) a loss of consciousness when someone faints, a swoon; syncope
3. (music) a missed beat or off-beat stress in music resulting in syncopation; syncope

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek συγκοπή (sunkopḗ).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛ̃.kɔp/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

syncope f (plural syncopes)

1. syncope, fainting
2. (phonetics) syncope

   Antonyms: aphérèse, apocope, procope

3. (music) syncope

Further reading

• “syncope”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Portuguese

Noun

syncope f (plural syncopes)

1. Pre-reform spelling (until Brazil 1943/Portugal 1911) of síncope.