Syllabication

Pronunciation

• RP enPR: sÄ­lă'bÄ­kāʹshÉ™n, IPA: /sɪˌlæbɪˈkeɪʃən/

Alternative forms

• sillabication 17th C.

Origin

First attested in 1631; from the Medieval Latin sillabicātio, syllabicātio, noun of action of the verb syllabicō, from syllaba ("syllable").

Full definition of syllabication

Noun

1. The act of syllabifying; syllabification.
• 1631, James Mabbe, tr. of ’s 1499 , chapter 18, page 180I sweare unto thee by the crisse-crosse row, by the whole Alphabet, and Sillabication of the letters.
• 1654, Joseph Brookbank, Plain, brief, and pertinent Rules for the judicious and artificial Syllabication of all English Words, main title
• 1857, George Lillie Craik, The English of Shakespeare, part 2: “Philological Commentary on Shakespeare’s Julius Cæsar”, act 1, scene 1, page 73Instances both of the unemphatic do and of the distinct syllabication of the final ed are numerous in the present play.
• 1926, Henry Watson Fowler, (1st ed., Oxford at the Clarendon Press), page 590, column 2, “syllabize &c.”syllabize &c. A verb & a noun are clearly sometimes needed for the notion of dividing words into syllables. The possible pairs seem to be the following (the number after each word means — 1, that it is in fairly common use; 2, that it is on record; 3, that it is not given in OED): — 
   syllabate 3    syllabation 2
   syllabicate 2    syllabication 1
   syllabify 2      syllabification 1
   syllabize 1     syllabization 3
  One first-class verb, two first-class nouns, but neither of those nouns belonging to that verb. It is absurd enough, & any of several ways out would do; that indeed is why none of them is taken. The best thing would be to accept the most recognized verb syllabize, give it the now non-existent noun syllabization, & relegate all the rest to the Superfluous words