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#90583 12/30/02 02:53 PM
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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.


#90584 12/30/02 06:10 PM
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#90585 12/30/02 06:46 PM
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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" .


#90586 12/30/02 06:46 PM
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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.)



#90587 12/30/02 06:53 PM
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sounds to me like the musical syncopation relates more to the first definition of syncope.



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#90588 12/30/02 08:57 PM
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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.")


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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.


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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..


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ewww....



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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.


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