*Pronunciation:* ˈtmiːsɪs
Forms:* (Also 15 *timesis.)
*Etymology:* < Greek τμῆσις a cutting, from verbal ablaut series τεμ-, τομ-, τμ- to cut.
Grammar and Rhetoric.
The separation of the elements of a compound word by the interposition of another word or words. (Often a reversion to the earlier uncompounded structure.)
1592 A. Day Eng. Secretorie ii. sig. N2v, Tmesis or Diacope, a diuision of a word compound into two partes, as: What might be soeuer vnto a man pleasing,..for whatsoeuer might be &c.
1678 E. Phillips New World of Words (ed. 4) , Tmesis,..a figure of Prosody, wherein a compounded word is, as it were, cut asunder, and divided into two parts by some other word which is interposed, as Septem Subjecta Trioni, for Subjecta Septemtrioni.
1844 Proc. Philol. Soc. 1 265 Though the constituent parts of compound terms may be disjoined by tmesis, the elements of truly simple words never are.
1889 Athenæum 23 Mar. 373/1 Forgive the quaint tmesis of his opening line:—How bright the chit and chat!