From rhetoric;
synaeresis
When two syllables are contracted into one.
syncope
Cutting letters or syllables from the middle of a word. As in pronunciation of "Gloucester".
In medicine, syneresis is the second stage of blood clotting, in which the clot contracts and
becomes stronger.
Syncope means fainting.
I'll use it in a sentence: "The intern groaned when the resident informed him that the new patient in the ER was going to be admitted for work-up of a syncopal episode."
Syncope is actual, loss-of-consciousness fainting. Near-syncope is an episode of extreme light-headedness that falls short of actual fainting.
The relationship between medical syncope and musical syncopation eludes me. The dictionary provides the etymology of both words with syncopare "to shorten" .
syncope
n.
5LL < Gr synkopc < syn3, together + koptein, to cut < IE base *(s)kep3 > CAPON6
1 the dropping of sounds or letters from the middle of a word, as in (gl9sZt!r) for Gloucester
2 a fainting, or loss of consciousness, caused by a temporary deficiency of blood supply to the brain
syn4co[pal
adj.
When a young lady say in the mirror a cut on her forehead, she screamed "I'm disfigured and
went into syncope. She fainted. But the "syncopation" in music
2 Music a) to shift (the regular accent) as by beginning a tone on an unaccented beat and continuing it through the next accented beat, or on the last half of a beat and continuing it through the first half of the following beat b) to use such shifted accents in (a musical composition, passage, rhythmic pattern, etc.)
sounds to me like the musical syncopation relates more to the first definition of syncope.
By the way, it is pronounced "SIN-ko-pee," rather than "SIN-cope," thereby betraying its Greek origin.
(And it's disliked by interns because so seldom does anyone find a satisfactory explanation for its occurrence. It's sort of the modern version of "swooning.")
Musical syncopopation to me is a matter of interjecting notes into the off-beats, a sort of deliberate falling out of step. If you're counting one-two-three-four and snapping your fingers in the space between the beats (the "ands" if you're saying one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and...), that's syncopation.
There's a use for "syneresis" in cooking too. If you overcook a custard the least little
bit, suddenly water separates from it, because the "clot" has contracted and expelled
the liquid..
Dear etaoin: It still tasted just as good to me, but it hurt my wife's pride, remembering how
her grandmother would have lectured her.
I'm sure the taste was great, it's just the description! words can be so powerful...
Was :clot' the word that sounded unappetising? Would coagulum have sounded better?
What word would you have used for the stage where the eggs and milk have been warmed
in water bath, until it is no longer liquid, but must not be left there too long?
yeah, clot. no, coagulum wouldn't have been better! maybe just "thick"?
maybe just "thick"?
I dunno. Thick, to me, implies a certain homogeneousness. With clotting you'd have clumps of stuff in a thinner base.
ok, clumpy. clumpy I can eat. clotting makes me think of blood, as does coagulum. I realize clumpy sounds like a failure when it comes to food, as in gravy, sauces, etc., but I'd still rather eat clumpy.
perhaps a syncopated sauce...
Anybody want a big serving of haggis?
Dear WW: I can enjoy camembert cheese.But haggis, kidneys, mountain oysters, raw fish and
chitlins I'll ask to be excused.
Dr. Bill, you wanna add squirrel brains to that list?
Hey! How'd this thread transmogrify to a food thread, anyway
In reply to:
Was :clot' the word that sounded unappetising? Would coagulum have sounded better?
What word would you have used for the stage where the eggs and milk have been warmed
in water bath, until it is no longer liquid, but must not be left there too long?
Doesn't anybody use the word "curdled"? To me that describes the breakdown of a previously-homogenous mixture into an unpleasant conglomeration of liquid and yucky clumps.
You know, you're all standing around, and wwh starts to tell you an apparently innocuous little cooking anecdote--and: Poof! There's ol' et' passed out cold again 'cuz wwh done gone and put one too many coagulants into the concoction.
actually, it's only when it comes to food that I am that squeamish...
curdled is good, though to me it implies that it has gone bad?
Can't make cheese without first causing milk to curdle.
In reply to:
(And it's disliked by interns because so seldom does anyone find a satisfactory explanation for its occurrence. It's sort of the modern version of "swooning.")
It's no great pleasure for the patient either, as I can say from experience. But I think swooning implies a reaction to some sort of emotional shock, while fainting or syncope just happens.
Bingley
In reply to:
It's no great pleasure for the patient either
Here here! I've been suffering from this for a couple of days now, not fainting as in losing consciousness but being quite dizzy no comments from the peanut gallery if you please
. It feels like I've been on nitrous oxide for days with occasional half second flicks into a different dimension. No, not fun atall.