syncopation

From syncopate +‎ -ion. The phonological sense was first attested in English in the 1530's, the musical sense in the 1590's.

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syncopation (usually uncountable, plural syncopations)

1. (linguistics, phonology) The contraction of a word by means of loss or omission of sounds or syllables in the middle thereof.
2. (music) The quality of a rhythm being somehow unexpected, in that it deviates from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak beats in a meter.

• syncopational
• syncopationally

• syncope