Tmesis (Greek, τμῆσις "a cutting") is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is inserted into another word, often for humorous effect. The insertion may occur between the parts of a compound word, of an infinitive (split infinitive), or between syllable boundaries (dystmesis).

Also referred to as diacope, or tumbarumba; the latter due to the popularity of tmesis in Australian speech. Linguists sometimes describe tmesis as a form of infixing.

Examples:

• "a-whole-nother"
• "I can't find it any-blooming-where" (see also expletive infixation)
• "any-old-how" (parallel to "any old thing")
• "I guaran-damn-tee it"
• "ri-goddamn-diculous" (attributed to John Wayne, in an address to some quondam graduating ROTC cadets, also used in the movies The Legend of Ron Burgundy and The Spy Who Shagged Me)
• Perhaps the most famous example of tmesis employed within a proper name is the popular American expression of surprise or frustration: "Jesus H. Christ" For many years the British have used the similar "Christ All-bleeding-mighty".
• "Why must they be so inde-bloody-pendent?!"
• In The Simpsons, Ned Flanders sometimes inserts the nonsense word "diddly" into the middle of words, as in "wel-diddly-elcome"
• In Sex and the City, Mr. Big often states, "Abso-fucking-lutely."
• In Saturday Night Live, Chris Farley's motivational speaker character Matt Foley was known to exclaim "La-dee-freakin'-da!"
• The phrase "congratu-fucking-lations" is often used sarcastically in the U.S., as is "un-fucking-believable".
• "Whoopdee-damn-doo," coined by basketball player Derrick Coleman.

Tmesis is also a poetic or rhetorical device from Classic Latin Poetry, such as Ovid's Metamorphoses. Words such as circumdare, to surround, are split apart with other words of the sentence in between. Example: circum virum dant, or they surround the man. This device is used in this way to create a visual image of surrounding the man by means of the words on the line.

Rhetoric | Figures of speech

Tmesis | Tmesi | Tmesis