or "measure of graduated accents", but although this is more precisely equivalent at the component level, I don´t think it really works as well in as the simplification to "accented measure".

I don´t think this refers to syncopation, quite the opposite: it refers to the basic idea of a measure or bar in which, in a four-beat bar for example, the first beat is the strongest, the third is the second strongest, etc., while shorter notes such as semi-quavers are less accented than any of the beats.

This is in fact what is said in the reference recommended above, if we are looking at the same thing (the French text, with "Akzentstufentakt" from Besseler), my 2nd ref..

It is this basic, simple structure which the text is comparing with the regularity of the staircase.