Have you brought gold? Have you brought silver to set me free?

[sovay]

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.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Mmm, tmesis. Along with zeugma and litotes, my favourite rhetorical figures. As much for the words, of course, as for their meanings - and of course for the fact that litotes and toilets are the only known anagrams of T S Eliot.

[sovay]

Along with zeugma and litotes, my favourite rhetorical figures.

lesser_celery asked me years ago to write a piece titled "Zeugma." I still haven't been able to. I really should.

Litotes always makes me think of littoral, even with the difference in spelling right there in front of me. It's a shorelike word.

and of course for the fact that litotes and toilets are the only known anagrams of T S Eliot.

There is such an obvious remark to be made here, I am going to resist it in the knowledge that everyone else got there first.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Bravo. I applaud your restraint: half the art of conversation lies in those things that we do not actually say.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Cryptic crossword clue: He confused not a few toilets.