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Only word beginning with Tm.....

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Maggoty | 09:54 Thu 14th Feb 2008 | Phrases & Sayings
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It means putting a word in the middle of another word : like Absu-bloody-lutely or no-ffing-way etc

Apparently its the only word in the english language that starts with "tm" and is something like "tmessis"

(It was on QI last night on Dave!)

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Yes, tmesis (plural tmeses).
Tmesis..the splitting up of a word into parts by one or more intervening words.
Question Author
Thank you - and I mean that sinc-ffing-cerely!!!!
Those Greeks have a lot to answer for! lol
Question Author
Including George Michael and Demis Rousos
In words such as �abso-bloody-lutely', the 'bloody' part is, strictly-speaking, known as an �infix'...and the word as a whole is not really a tmesis.
Strictly speaking, tmesis involves the insertion of another word or words into a compound word. For example, in the phrase: "for no reason whatso-bloody-ever", there is a tmesis, since 'whatsoever' is a compound word made up of what, so and ever. 'Absolutely' is not a compound word and nor is �sincerely'.

As a matter of interest, there is also a word, 'tmema', meaning a segment and the adjective from 'tmesis' is 'tmetic'...so that makes three 'tm... words.
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Cheers for that QM.

However I will let Stephen Fry off with the "one TM" bit as the 3 words are from the same family

.... or are you actually Stephen Fry under an assumed name?
I can assure you, M, that I am not Stephen Fry! Cheers
Other Clever Examples of Tmesis:

The James Brown song, " Make it Funky"

"What you goin' play now?"

"Bobby, I don't know. But what's in-ever-I-play, it's got to be funky!"


Eddie to Saffie on "AbFab":

"You're not going to any uni-bloody versity!"


James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano on "The Sopranos"

"Cruci-*******-fiction"


Tyler Perry in "Madea Goes to Jail"

"I'm Ma to-the-damn Dea!"

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Only word beginning with Tm.....

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