Unsyncopated

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Not marked by displaced accents, so the rhythm falls evenly on the beat instead of shifting onto the weak beats
2. Lacking the displaced stress of a rhythm in music, or the dropped interior sound of a word in speech
3. Describing a rhythm or word form that has not been shifted off the beat or shortened by the omission of a medial sound

Etymology: "Unsyncopated" is a plain formation: the prefix "un-", meaning "not", attached to "syncopated," the past participle of "syncopate." Syncopate itself comes from the Medieval Latin "syncopare," which means to cut short or to contract, and in grammar and phonology it refers to dropping a sound or syllable from the middle of a word, as in "ne'er" for "never." Because "syncopated" describes that dropping of a sound, "unsyncopated" describes a form in which the sound is kept. The prefix does the work here. "Un-" has been productive in English since Old English, attaching to adjectives and participles to negate them, so "unsyncopated" needed no special coinage: a speaker who wanted to contrast a full pronunciation with a clipped one could simply add it. The pairing is most useful in discussions of verse and speech, where a line can be read with every syllable or with a contracted form.

Antonyms: syncopated