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/, X-SAMPA: /t@"mi:sIs/, /"mi:sIs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  ,

  Audio (US)

  (file)

• 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

• Bulgarian: тмезис (bg) (tmezis) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 分字法 (cmn) (fēnzìfǎ), 插詞法 (cmn), 插词法 (cmn) (chācífǎ)

• 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) (tmezis) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: тмеза (sh) f

  Roman: tmeza (sh) 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 tmēsīs.

Descendants

• English: tmesis
• French: tmèse

References

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