syncopation
(sɪŋkəˈpeɪʃən)
Also 6–8 sin-.
[ad. med.L. syncopātio, -ōnem, n. of action f. syncopāre: see syncopate.]
1. Gram. Contraction of a word by omission of one or more syllables or letters in the middle; transf., a word so contracted.
| c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 898 Syncopation is none other thyng by abreviation of length. 1623 Penkethman Handf. Hon. Pref., Catus an old syncopation of Cautus. 1873 F. Hall Mod. Eng. 175 Such syncopations and compressions as gave us arbalist, governor, pedant, and proctor, from arcubalista, gubernator, pædagogans, and procurator. |
† 2. Path. = syncope n. 1. Obs. rare.
| 1547 Boorde Brev. Health cccxxiv. (1557) 105 The .324. Chapitre doth shewe of syncopacions or soundynge. |
3. Mus. a. The action of beginning a note on a normally unaccented part of the bar and sustaining it into the normally accented part, so as to produce the effect of shifting back or anticipating the accent; the shifting of accent so produced.
| 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 144 If your base ascende halfe a note..any of the other parts making Syncopation. 1662 Playford Skill Mus. viii. 28 Sincopation is when the striking of Time falls to be in the midst of a Semibrief or Minum, &c. or, as we usually term it, Notes Driven till the Time falls even again. 1694 Ibid. (ed. 12) viii. 24 Notes of Syncopation, or Driving-Notes, are, when your Hand or Foot is taken up, or put down, while the Note is sounding. 1730 Treat. Harmony 46 The Part of the Cadence which has the Ligature or Sincopation. 1854 Cherubini's Counterpoint 17 Syncopation should always have a concord at the unaccented part of the bar. 1880 E. Prout in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 13/1 Another very frequent method of changing the position of the accent is by means of syncopation. |
b. Music characterized by a syncopated rhythm, spec. dance music influenced by ragtime.
| 1921 Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 23/1 The pulsating sound [of the drum] heightens excitement to the verge of frenzy, and indicates the direct origin of the orgiastic African syncopation to which the wives and daughters of the conquering Anglo-Saxon race dance with their men⁓partners, retained by arrangement, in the aristocratic dance-clubs of London and New York. 1928 Grove's Dict. Mus. (ed. 3) V. 243/1 Syncopation has become a general term for all that class of 20th-century dance music which has sprung from the American adoption of rag-time. 1962 Charters & Kunstadt Jazz vi. 73 Even the Clef Club Orchestra was advertised as a jazz band, with ‘50 Joy Whooping Sultans of High-Speed Syncopation’. 1968 P. Tamony Americanisms (typescript) No. 23. 4 Syncopation described ‘Alexander's Ragtime Band’ and other printed music in the first decade or so of this century, ragtime becoming old shoe and pejorative. |
c. fig.
| 1979 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Nov. 777/1 The stained glass and colour syncopations in blues and greens. |