syncope

	Cutting letters or syllables from the middle of a word. A kind of metaplasm.

Examples
	*Omission of a medial letter:* When "library" is pronounced "libary" *Omission of an medial syllable:* You, that are thus so tender o'er his follies, Will never do him good, not one of you. —Shakespeare The Winter's Tale 2.3.128-129 O'ermaster't as you may. —Shakespeare Hamlet 1.5.140
Related Figures
	metaplasm Figures of Omission synaloepha Omitting one of two concurrent vowels at the end of one word and the beginning of another epenthesis The addition of a letter or syllable to the middle of a word. apocope Omitting a letter or syllable at the end of a word.
See Also
	Four Categories of Change: Subtraction

	Sources:	Isidore 1.35.3; Mosellanus ("syncope" "concisio") a3v; Susenbrotus (1540) 20; Sherry (1550) 27 ("syncope," "consicio"); Wilson (1560) 202 ("cutting from the midst"); Peacham (1577) E2v

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Gideon O. Burton, Brigham Young University
Please cite "Silva Rhetoricae" (rhetoric.byu.edu)

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sin'-ko-pee	from Gk. syn and koptein, "to strike off"
	*consicio*
	*cutting from the midst*