This is the best comic I have ever seen about tmesis in the English language and also nearly identical to the example we were given in Latin III, except that instead of ridiculous the host word was unbelievable. It's an actual morphological rule; I believe in English it has to do with syllabic stress (in Latin, it's more strictly the splitting—τμῆσις—of a compound word). No one should have been surprised that it led to a brief fad of students saying unbelievfuckingable just to be difficult. Dr. Fiveash also spoke fondly of the emphatic possibilities of reduplication: unbe . . . believable, which I have never actually used in conversation no matter my level of incredulity, but I appreciate having been told in my junior year of high school that I could.
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Active Entries
- 1: Can you see me? I'm waiting for the right time
- 2: There's nothing here but echoes
- 3: If I'm hoping, then I'm hoping for the frost
- 4: There's no boat to take me where all the stars go to cross the water
- 5: Once you know it's a dream, it can't hurt
- 6: All the ghosts, some old, some new
- 7: The wind is blowing the planes around
- 8: Let the lights run like rivers all over my skin
- 9: I am bound to these shores, I'll be bound till the end
- 10: Wish everyone could hear when she sings
Style Credit
- Style: Classic for Refried Tablet by and
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