syncopate

• POS: Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: syn=co=pate

CIDE DICTIONARY

syncopate, v. t. [LL. syncopatus, p. p. of syncopare to syncopate, to swoon. See Syncope.].

•  To contract, as a word, by taking one or more letters or syllables from the middle; as, “Gloster” is a syncopated form of “Gloucester.”  [1913 Webster]
•  To commence, as a tone, on an unaccented part of a measure, and continue it into the following accented part, so that the accent is driven back upon the weak part and the rhythm drags.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

syncopate, v.tr.
1 Mus. displace the beats or accents in (a passage) so that strong beats become weak and vice versa.
2 shorten (a word) by dropping interior sounds or letters, as symbology for symbolology, Gloster for Gloucester.

Derivative

syncopation n. syncopator n.

Etymology

LL syncopare swoon (as SYNCOPE)