A noun form of syncopation has 3 meanings: #1#1: (phonology) the loss of sounds in the interior of a word (as in `fo'c'sle' for `forecastle'), #2#2: a musical rhythm accenting a normally weak beat. #3#3: music (especially dance music) that has a syncopated rhythm.

Syncopation: in music, the accentuation of a beat that normally would be weak according to the rhythmic division of the measure. Although the normally strong beat is not usually effaced by the process, there are occasions when the natural rhythmic structure is entirely altered, the syncopation being so elaborate and persistent that the actual metrical structure is obliterated aurally. Occasional syncopation is present in music of all types and in all periods. It predominates, however, in African music and therefore in African-American music through which it became the principal element in ragtime.

When did syncopations first start? Some people may think that syncopations began when jazz first evolved in the US. Traditional dance music before 1910 didn't have many syncopations. In his book The Creation of Jazz, Burton Pertetti points out that 1910 recordings of Dixieland music reveal a syncopated version of traditional "two step" dance music.The Creation of Jazz

Leonard Bernstein, the famous composer and orchestral conductor used to be fond of pointing out that you can take traditional sounding music and give it a jazz flavor by adding syncopations. But Beethoven also used syncopations in his music more than a 100 years earlier than the early American jazz musicians. And you can find a good example of syncopation in the A minor Two Part Invention by J.S. Bach.

Most books on Western music history trace first use of syncopation back to a time period referred to as Ars Nova (The New Art) in the 14th century! The difference, though, is that these early musicians used syncopations sparingly for special effects, whereas jazz musicians incorporate syncopation as a basic stylistic element in their music.Ars Nova