sb. Gram. Also -le-. [late L., a. Gr. συναλοιφή, f. συναλείφειν to smear or melt together, f. σύν SYN- + ἀλείφειν to anoint. In F. synalèphe, It., Sp. sinalefa, Pg. synalepha.] The coalescence or contraction of two syllables into one; esp. the coalescence (in verse) of two vowels at the end of one word and the beginning of the next, by obscuration of the former (or, loosely, by suppression of it, in which case more properly called elision). † Also in humorous allusion (quot. 1698).
1540. Palsgr., Acolastus, E iij b. Whan so euer a worde endeth in a vowel, the nexte word folowyng begynnynge with a vowell … than shall the vowell that the precedent worde ended in, be dround, and not accounted in scannynge, by this fygure Synalœpha.
1602. Campion, Art Engl. Poesie, 38. The Synalœphas or Elisions in our toong are either necessary to auoid the … gaping in our verse, or may be vsd at pleasure, as for let vs to say let’s.
1685. Dryden, Sylvæ, Pref., Poet. Wks. (1910), 384. [Ovid] avoids … all Synalœpha’s, or cutting of one Vowel when it comes before another, in the following word.
1698. Farquhar, Love & Bottle, V. ii. I’ll cut off one of his Limbs, I’ll make a Synalœpha of him.
1741. J. Martyn, trans. Virg. Georg., I. 4, note (1811), 2/1. Some editions have atque, between pecori and apibus, to avoid a synalœpha.
1827. Tate, Grk. Metres, in Theatre of Greeks (ed. 2), 445. Hegelochus, who acted the part of Orestes … when he came to v. 273, ἐκ κυμάτων γἀρ αὖθις αὖ γαλήνʹ ὀρῶ, wanting breath to pronounce γαλήνʹ ὀρῶ with the delicate synalepha required,… stopped between the words, and uttered these sounds instead, γαλῆν ὀρῶ.
1867. Brande & Cox, Dict. Sci., etc., s.v., The synalæpha is commonly … adopted in Italian and Spanish poetry.
Hence † Synalœpha v. trans. (nonce-wd.), to contract by synalœpha (in quot. fig.).
1661. Feltham, Resolves, II. lvi. (ed. 6), 302. Whatsoever he does well, is presently detracted from, till it be lessened and synalœpha’d [ed. 1677 synalœph’d] into nothing.
