6 August 2015

syncopate

[sing-kuh-peyt, sin-]

verb (used with object), syncopated, syncopating.

1. Music.
to place (the accents) on beats that are normally unaccented.
to treat (a passage, piece, etc.) in this way.
2. Grammar. to contract (a word) by omitting one or more sounds from the middle, as in reducing Gloucester to Gloster.

Origin of syncopate

Medieval Latin
1595-1605; < Medieval Latin syncopātus (past participle of syncopāre to shorten by syncope). See syncope, -ate1

Related forms

syncopator, noun

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for syncopate

Historical Examples

syncopate and curtail a royal ornament, and leave a domestic animal.
St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 5, March, 1878
Various

syncopate and curtail a greenish mineral, and leave a Turkish officer.
St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 5, March, 1878
Various

syncopate a crown of a person of rank, and leave a musical instrument.
St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, September 1878, No. 11
Various

syncopate and curtail a carpenter’s tool, and leave an insect.
St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 5, March, 1878

Anagram

spy octane
pecan toys

Today’s quote

My fascination with letting images repeat and repeat – or in film’s case ‘run on’ – manifests my belief that we spend much of our lives seeing without observing.

– Andy Warhol

On this day

6 August 1661 – Holland sells Brazil to Portugal for 8 million guilders.

6 August 1806 – The Holy Roman Empire comes to an inglorious end at the hands of Napoleon.

6 August 1927 – birthday of Andy Warhol, American pop artist. American writer, Gore Vidal, once said, ‘Andy Warhol is the only genius I’ve ever known with an IQ of 60‘.

6 August 1945 – USA drops an atomic bomb, called ‘Little Boy’ on Hiroshima, Japan. It is estimated that between 70,000 to 140,000 people died within the four months of the bombing, with half that number dying on the day of the bombing.

6 August 1965 – President Lydon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act which removed discriminatory voting practices against African Americans. Essentially it meant African Americans could vote freely, without having to meet qualifications that white Americans didn’t need to meet, such as literacy tests.