Etymology

tmesis

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Today it means: The insertion of one or more words between the components of a compound word. Full definition →

Late Latin tmēsis ← Ancient Greek τμῆσις
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromτμῆσις“a cutting”
  2. Late Latin · borrowed fromtmēsis
  3. English todaytmesis

From Late Latin tmēsis, from Ancient Greek τμῆσις (tmêsis, “a cutting”), from τέμνω (témnō, “to cut”). First attested in 1586.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.