Added 10 October 2026
syncope
/ˈsɪŋ.kə.pi/ noun
In Latin: syncopē, languor Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about syncope at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- A spontaneous loss of consciousness caused by insufficient blood to the brain.
- (phonology) the loss of sounds from within a word (as in `fo'c'sle' for `forecastle').
Origin
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.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)