tmesis

English

WOTD - 2 November 2007    

Etymology

Coined 1586, from Late Latin tmēsis, from Ancient Greek τμῆσις (tmēsis, “a cutting”), from τέμνω (temnō, “I cut”).

Pronunciation

• (Canada, RP, US): IPA: /təˈmiːsɪs/, /ˈmiːsɪs/, SAMPA: /t@"mi:sIs/, /"mi:sIs/

• Audio (US)

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  Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -iːsɪs

Noun

tmesis (plural tmeses)

1. (prosody) The insertion of one or more words between the components of a compound word.

Related terms

• axonotmesis
• neurotmesis

Synonyms

• tumbarumba

Translations

insertion of one or more words between the components of a word

Bosnian: tmeza (bs) f. Bulgarian: тмезис (bg) m. Chinese: Mandarin: 分字法 (zh) (fēnzìfǎ), 插詞法 (zh), 插词法 (zh) (chācífǎ) Croatian: tmeza (hr) f. Dutch: tmesis (nl) f. Finnish: tmeesi (fi) French: tmèse (fr) f.

German: Tmesis (de) f. Greek: τμήσις (el) (tmésis) f. Italian: tmesi (it) f. Japanese: 切離 (ja) (きりはな, kirihana) Polish: tmeza (pl) f. Russian: тмезис (ru) m. Serbian: tmeza (sr) f. Spanish: tmesis (es) f.

See also

• diacope
• infix
• Tmesis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• i-stems
• misset
• smites

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Latin

Alternative forms

• thmesis

Etymology

From Ancient Greek τμῆσις (tmēsis, “a cutting”), from τέμνω (temnō, “I cut”).

Noun

tmēsis (genitive tmēsis); f, third declension

1. (grammar) The separation of a word, tmesis.

Inflection

Number	Singular	Plural
nominative	tmēsis	tmēsēs
genitive	tmēsis	tmēsium
dative	tmēsī	tmēsibus
accusative	tmēsem	tmēsēs 1
ablative	tmēse	tmēsibus
vocative	tmēsis	tmēsēs

¹ May also be tmesīs.

Descendants

• English: tmesis
• French: tmèse

References

• tmesis in Charlton T. Lewis & Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879