TMESIS
Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 11:41 pm
• tmesis •
Pronunciation: tê-mee-sis • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Splitting a word in two and sandwiching an emphatic modifier between the two parts, as in abso-bloody-lutely or abso-doggone-lutely. Like the plural of all English words borrowed from Latin that end on -is, the plural of this word is tmeses.
Notes: Today's Good Word is the process of producing what linguists call a sandwich term: an expletive sandwiched between the two halves of the word it is meant to emphasize. This unusual means of emphasizing a word is a speech conceit that is not a part of formal, written English but occurs in speech. Fan-bloody-tastic is as fantastic as it gets, the ultimate in what is fantastic. The only rule is that the final part of the sandwich must be two syllables long. Fantas-bloody-tic doesn't work.
In Play: The word chosen to separate the parts of the emphasized word is often off-color. Here are a couple of examples we've dressed up: "Why do you try to fish in the Susqua-dadburned-hana? You know there aren't any fish worth catching in it." Some feel that tmesis also occurs in compound nouns a fixed phrases like this one: "Just through the dirty dishes any old place." Use your imagination for more vivid and socially disruptive such constructions.
Word History: This Good Word comes via Latin from Greek tmesis "a cutting" from temnein "to cut." The Proto-Indo-European root, like many others, appeared as a triplet, tom-/tem-/tm- "cut", which also gave us atom from a "not" + tom "cuttable" and anatomy from Greek anatome "dissection, cutting up" from ana "up" + tome "cutting". Temple goes back to Latin templum which seems to have originally referred to a clearing, an area in which all the trees were cut.
Pronunciation: tê-mee-sis • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Splitting a word in two and sandwiching an emphatic modifier between the two parts, as in abso-bloody-lutely or abso-doggone-lutely. Like the plural of all English words borrowed from Latin that end on -is, the plural of this word is tmeses.
Notes: Today's Good Word is the process of producing what linguists call a sandwich term: an expletive sandwiched between the two halves of the word it is meant to emphasize. This unusual means of emphasizing a word is a speech conceit that is not a part of formal, written English but occurs in speech. Fan-bloody-tastic is as fantastic as it gets, the ultimate in what is fantastic. The only rule is that the final part of the sandwich must be two syllables long. Fantas-bloody-tic doesn't work.
In Play: The word chosen to separate the parts of the emphasized word is often off-color. Here are a couple of examples we've dressed up: "Why do you try to fish in the Susqua-dadburned-hana? You know there aren't any fish worth catching in it." Some feel that tmesis also occurs in compound nouns a fixed phrases like this one: "Just through the dirty dishes any old place." Use your imagination for more vivid and socially disruptive such constructions.
Word History: This Good Word comes via Latin from Greek tmesis "a cutting" from temnein "to cut." The Proto-Indo-European root, like many others, appeared as a triplet, tom-/tem-/tm- "cut", which also gave us atom from a "not" + tom "cuttable" and anatomy from Greek anatome "dissection, cutting up" from ana "up" + tome "cutting". Temple goes back to Latin templum which seems to have originally referred to a clearing, an area in which all the trees were cut.