tmesis

See also: Tmesis

English

WOTD – 2 November 2007

Etymology

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

Cognates include Bulgarian тмезис (tmezis), Dutch tmesis, Finnish tmeesi, French tmèse, German Tmesis, Greek τμήσις (tmísis), Italian tmesi, Polish tmeza, Portuguese tmese, Russian тме́зис (tmézis), Serbo-Croatian тмеза and tmeza, Spanish tmesis, and many others.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t(ə)ˈmiːsɪs/, /ˈmiːsɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  ,

  Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -iːsɪs

Noun

Examples
How bright the chit and chat, inserting and into chit-chat Abso-fucking-lutely, insertion of swear word fucking into absolutely A whole nother, a proscribed but common insertion.

tmesis (plural tmeses)

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

   Synonyms: diacope, tumbarumba

Derived terms

• axonotmesis
• neurotmesis

Related terms

• tmema
• tmetic

Translations

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

• Bulgarian: тмезис m (tmezis)
• Catalan: tmesi f
• Chinese:

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

• Dutch: tmesis (nl) f
• Finnish: tmeesi (fi)
• French: tmèse (fr) f
• German: Tmesis (de) f
• Greek: τμήσις f (tmísis)
• Italian: tmesi f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 切離 (きりはな, kirihana)
• Latin: tmēsis f, diacopē f
• Polish: tmeza f
• Portuguese: tmese (pt) f
• Russian: тме́зис m (tmézis)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: тмеза f

  Roman: tmeza (sh) f

• Spanish: tmesis f
• Tagalog: salingit

See also

• infix
• -bloody-
• -fucking-

Further reading

• tmesis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• MSTies, i-stems, misset, smites, stimes, tsimes

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Latin

Alternative forms

• thmesis (Medieval Latin)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈtmeː.sis/, [ˈt̪meːs̠ɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈtme.sis/, [ˈt̪mɛːs̬is]

Noun

tmēsis f (genitive tmēsis); third declension

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

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tmēsis	tmēsēs
Genitive	tmēsis	tmēsium
Dative	tmēsī	tmēsibus
Accusative	tmēsin tmēsim	tmēsēs tmēsīs
Ablative	tmēsī	tmēsibus
Vocative	tmēsis	tmēsēs

Descendants

• English: tmesis
• French: tmèse

References

• “tmesis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• tmesis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

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Spanish

Noun

tmesis f (plural tmesis)

1. (prosody) tmesis