SYN'COPATE, verb transitive [See Syncope.] To contract, as a word, by taking one or more letters or syllables from the middle. 1. In music, to prolong a note begun on the unaccented part of a bar, to the accented part of the next bar; or to connect the last note of a bar with the first of the following; or to end a note in one part, in the middle of a note of another part.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI