English
syncope
Syncope comes from Ancient Greek συγκοπή ‘syncope, cutting a word short by striking out…’, from συγκόπτω ‘cut up’, and ultimately from Proto-Hellenic *kopt͏̌ō.
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*kopt͏̌ōreconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEκόπτωkóptō‘to strike’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEσυγκόπτωsunkóptō‘cut up’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEσυγκοπήsunkopḗ‘syncope, cutting a word short by striking out one or more letters’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsyncopē
- Englishearliest quotation 1844syncope
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*kopt͏̌ōreconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEκόπτωkóptō‘to strike’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEσυγκόπτωsunkóptō‘cut up’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEσυγκοπήsunkopḗ‘syncope, cutting a word short by striking out one or more letters’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsyncopē
- Englishearliest quotation 1844syncope
Earliest quotation: 1844, Edgar Allan Poe: “Sometimes, without any apparent cause, I sank, little by…”
The story
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.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep-
through Ancient Greek κόπτω ‘to strike’
Today it means
noun The elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Hellenic *kopt͏̌ō / syncope