Gram. and Rhet. (Also 6 timesis.) [a. Gr. τμῆσις a cutting, from verbal ablaut series τεμ-, τομ-, τμ- to cut.] 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.)
1586. Day, Eng. Secretary, II. (1625), 83. Timesis or Diacope, a diuision of a word compound into two parts, as, What might be soeuer vnto a man pleasing,… for, whatsoeuer might be, etc.
1678. Phillips (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., I. 265. Though the constituent parts of compound terms may be disjoined by tmesis, the elements of truly simple words never are.
1889. Athenæum, 23 March, 373/1. Forgive the quaint tmesis of his opening line:—How bright the chit and chat!
