TMESIS

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 5 October 2011

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TMESIS  (n. pl. TMESES)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) the separation of parts of a word or phrase by an intervening word or words

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: (none)
• Anagrams: MISSET, SMITES, STIMES
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
The rhetorical device known as TMESIS was used in some forms of ancient poetry, and it still sees occasional use in modern speech and writing, usually for special emphasis or humorous effect.  Some common examples include:

• a whole nother (for another)
• abso-bloody-lutely, un-fuckin’-believable, la-dee-freakin’-da, and other expletives
• Ned Flanders, a character on the TV show The Simpsons, is a master of what might be termed tme-diddly-esis, as in phrases such as “Hi-diddly-ho,“ “am I that pre-diddly-ictable?”, and “I’m a mur-diddly-urderer!”

The term comes intact from the Greek tmesis (“act of cutting”), a modified form of temnein (“to cut”).  The modern English word TOME actually derives from the same root.  While TOME now typically means “a large book,” it originally meant “a single volume of a multi-volume work, or a large section of a volume” — that is a part cut off, or separated, from the whole work.

This week’s theme: Words guaran-damn-teed to start with T

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