# Term for inserting a word into a compund word **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 1, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238 "2004-11-01T03:12:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/1 "2004-11-01T03:12:02Z")
Title says it all. Example: un-freaking-believable. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/2 "2004-11-01T03:14:41Z")
[Tmesis](http://www.csi.uottawa.ca/~kbarker/ling-devices.html#tmesis) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/3 "2004-11-01T03:15:48Z")
Man, two minutes! Thanks. Coincidental that I used the same example. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/4 "2004-11-01T03:17:09Z")
[Infix](http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAnInfix.htm) One of the class of [affixes](http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAnAffixLinguistics.htm), the most copmmon of which are prefix and suffix. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/5 "2004-11-01T03:18:21Z")
BTW dystmesis is the same, but with the extra word inserted in an unlikely place (so to speak): “unbe-freakin-lievable” ---
**Author:** ![Melandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Melandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melandry)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/6 "2004-11-01T03:50:18Z")
I can’t be the only one who thinks unbe-freakin’-lievable is the right place for it to go. In fact, [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expletive_infixation) backs me up as to un-freakin’ believable being the less regular way. After all, expletive infixation does obey certain rules (see cite). ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/7 "2004-11-01T04:07:25Z")
Right. You cannot insert a word into a metrical foot. “Unbelievable” breaks up as (un.be.)(lie.va.)(ble.) ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/8 "2004-11-01T04:13:10Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Right. You cannot insert a word into a metrical foot. “Unbelievable” breaks up as (un.be.)(lie.va.)(ble.) Native speakers do that all the time, so yes, you can. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/9 "2004-11-01T04:14:02Z")
Okay, so what’s the term for things like “bass-ackwards”? Come to think of it, _are_ there any other things like “bass-ackwards”? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/10 "2004-11-01T04:16:44Z")
> [@Roland Orzabal](#): > > Okay, so what’s the term for things like “bass-ackwards”? > > Come to think of it, _are_ there any other things like “bass-ackwards”? Spoonerisms, especially if unintentional. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/11 "2004-11-01T08:34:56Z")
> [@AndrewT](#): > > BTW dystmesis is the same, but with the extra word inserted in an unlikely place (so to speak): “unbe-freakin-lievable” Wow, exactly the same point with exactly the same example was given five years ago in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=12213). Oh, I’m not saying you should have found it. I just remembered it because steno is my brother, and as far as I know that was his only thread! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/12 "2004-11-01T08:48:25Z")
Can anyone think of examples where the inserted word isn’t either a cuss word or a euphemism for a cuss word? ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/13 "2004-11-01T10:23:06Z")
{Talking about infixing “bloody”}: “The word went through, for the first time in the history of a language of the Indo-European family, a grammatical and syntactical process that is known only to several American Indian languages and to on or two others. That is the process of infixing, in which a particle, or a part of a word, or a whole word, is placed in the middle of another word…” Ashley Montague, The Anatomy Of Swearing As far as I know, adjectival swearwords like “bloody” and “fucking” are the only ones that are English infixes. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/14 "2004-11-01T14:19:58Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > Can anyone think of examples where the inserted word isn’t either a cuss word or a euphemism for a cuss word? In American english, “fucking” and variants of it are the only infixes. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/15 "2004-11-11T12:23:51Z")
I don’t know about that. I’ve heard people confused by where to break the word “another” say things like, “That’s a totally nother problem!” ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/16 "2004-11-11T16:38:15Z")
> [@Greg Charles](#): > > I don’t know about that. I’ve heard people confused by where to break the word “another” say things like, “That’s a totally nother problem!” Are they native speakers of English? ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-inserting-a-word-into-a-compund-word/272238/17 "2004-11-11T17:12:04Z")
> [@Greg Charles](#): > > I don’t know about that. I’ve heard people confused by where to break the word “another” say things like, “That’s a totally nother problem!” It is probably an error. “That’s a totally nother problem!” should be “That’s totally another problem!” or “That’s a totally different problem!” They seem to have collided.