This week's theme
Words and Medicine

This week's words
apheresis
syncope
aspirate
prolepsis
agglutinate

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(SING-kuh-pee)

MEANING:

noun:
1. The shortening of a word by omission of sounds or letters from its middle. For example, did not to didn't or Worcester to Wooster.
2. Fainting caused by insufficient blood flow to the brain.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin syncope, from Greek synkope (contraction, cutting off), from syn- (together) + koptein (to cut). Earliest documented use: c. 1400.

USAGE:

"There were important books on vowel syncope in Greek and Indo-European."
Robert Coleman; Oswald Szemerenyi -- Hungary's Eclectic Cockney Linguist; The Guardian (London, UK); Feb 24, 1997.

"'I'm no doctor, but they say I just fainted,' said Pavelec, who had what is termed a neurocardiogenic syncope episode."
NHL Report; The Philadelphia Inquirer; Oct 20, 2010.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: