sinciput

English

Alternative forms

• synciput [17th C.]

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sinciput (“half a head”; “smoked hog’s cheek or half-jowl”; (transferred senses): “brain”, “head”), whence also the French sinciput.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sĭnʹsĭpŭt, IPA^(key): /ˈsɪnsɪpʌt/

Noun

sinciput (plural sincipita or sinciputs)

1. (chiefly anatomy) The front part of the head or skull (as contradistinct from occiput).

   Synonym: bregma

   Antonym: occiput

   • 1964, International Abstracts of Surgery, volume 119, page 629:

     The cranial anomalies occurred either in the occiput or the sinciput, approximately twice as often in the occiput as in the sinciput.
     Such lesions have been considered to be inoperable when they involved the sinciput.

   • 1997, Robert K. Creasy, Management of Labor and Delivery, page 375:

     Between these two extremes lie the sinciput presentation and the brow presentation. Thus there are four distinct attitudes: vertex, sinciput, brow, and face (Figure 15-7).

   • 2003, Sara Wickham, Midwifery: Best Practice, volume 1, page 79:

     I learnt to develop a ‘feel’ for the sinciput and the occiput as these landmarks feel different abdominally, and also their ‘whereabouts’ in relationship to the pelvic brim. Therefore, when descent and flexion were taking place, I learnt to ascertain how the positions of the sinciput and occiput would change in relationship to each other and in relationship to the pelvic brim.

Related terms

• sincipital

References

• “Sinciput” listed on page 73 of volume IX, part I (Si–St) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles [1st ed., 1919]
• “sinciput” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd ed., 1989]

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sinciput (“half a head”; “smoked hog’s cheek or half-jowl”; (transferred senses): “brain”, “head”), whence English sinciput.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛ̃.si.pyt/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

sinciput m (plural sinciputs)

1. (anatomy) sinciput

   Antonym: occiput

See also

• front

Further reading

• “sinciput”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

FWOTD – 23 April 2014

Etymology

sēmi- (“half”) +‎ caput (“head”); compare Ancient Greek ἡμικεφάλιον (hēmikephálion), ἡμίκρανον (hēmíkranon), ἡμικέφαλον (hēmiképhalon)

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈsin.ki.put/, [ˈs̠ɪŋkɪpʊt̪]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈsin.t͡ʃi.put/, [ˈsin̠ʲt͡ʃiput̪]

Noun

sinciput n (genitive sincipitis); third declension

1. half a head; hence, a cheek or half the jowl of a smoked hog
   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 8.209:

     Neque aliō ex animālī numerōsior māteria gāneae: quīnquāgintā prope sapōrēs, eum cēterīs singulī. Hinc cēnsōriārum legum pāginae, interdictaque cēnīs abdomina, glandia, testiculī, vulvae, sincipita verrīna, ut tamen Pūblī mīmōrum poetae cēna postquam servitutem exuerat nūlla memorētur sine abdomine, etiam vocābulō sūminis ab eō inpositō.

     Nor is more numerous eating matter derived from any other animal: almost fifty flavours, while the other animals only have one. Hence the pages of sumptuary laws, and hog's paunches, sweetbreads, testicles, matrix and hog cheeks forbidden from feasts, although no dinner of Publius the mime-writer after being freed from slavery is recorded to have been without paunch, even with the nickname 'Udder' given to him for this.

2. (transferred senses):
   1. the brain
      • c. 200 BCE, Plautus, Menaechmi 3.2.38–40:

        PĒNICULUS. Nōn mē nōvistī? MENAECHMUS SŌSICLĒS. Nōn negem, sī nōverim.
        PĒNICULUS. Tuom parasītum nōn nōvistī? MENAECHMUS SŌSICLĒS. Nōn tibī
        sānum est, adulēscēns, sinciput, intellegō.

        PENICULUS. You don't recognize me? MAENACHMUS SOSICLES. I wouldn't deny it, if I recognized you.
        PENICULUS. You don't recognize your parasite? MAENACHMUS SOSICLES. You aren't
        right in the brain, young one, I understand.

   2. (loosely) the head

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	sinciput	sincipita
Genitive	sincipitis	sincipitum
Dative	sincipitī	sincipitibus
Accusative	sinciput	sincipita
Ablative	sincipite	sincipitibus
Vocative	sinciput	sincipita

Derived terms

• sincipitālis (New Latin)

Descendants

• English: sinciput
• French: sinciput
• Italian: sincipite
• Portuguese: sinciput
• Sicilian: sincìpiti

References

• “sinciput”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sinciput”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• sinciput in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French sinciput, from Latin sinciput.

Noun

sinciput n (plural sincipute)

1. sinciput

Declension

Declension of sinciput

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) sinciput	sinciputul	(niște) sincipute	sinciputele
genitive/dative	(unui) sinciput	sinciputului	(unor) sincipute	sinciputelor
vocative	sinciputule		sinciputelor