Words inside another word

Is there a term for a word that occurs unbroken within another word? For example, the word «fun» in «funeral», or «drag» in «hydragog».

The closest thing I could find from my search was the term «kangaroo word», which refers to a word that contains the letters of its synonym, in the correct order (though not necessarily consecutively).

I am currently using «substring» as a substitute in my essay. Unfortunately, «substring» applies to any selection of consecutive characters from the containing word, and doesn’t convey the fact that the subset is a complete English word.

I have tagged this phrase-requests, but I would appreciate single words as well. I will have to use the term quite often, so the less awkward it is, the better.

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  • #1

Hello!

This is my first time here at the forum. I’m a writer working on a novel, and I’ve hit a brain fade when it comes to a specific, unsual word.

I need to know the word for «a word that has another word embedded in it.»

For a pop culture reference as an example, on «Sex in the City» when Carrie asked Mr. Big if he’d ever been in love, he responded:

«Abso-f**king-lutely»

If anyone can help, it would be appreciated. I know the word exists, but I’ve been scouring my references for sesquipedalians (big words), and I can’t find it.

Much thanks,
Silas

BTW, I found this forum because I did a search for «word lovers forum». After I registered, I realized the main intent was to help people translate from other languages. So if this is off the subject of the forum’s intended use, my sincere apologies.

    • cuchuflete


    • #2

    Welcome to the Dark and Stormy Forums,

    Yes, we are word lovers. Look around this forum…grammar, syntax, and affection for a good turn of phrase, interspersed with some delightful digressions. It’s like a fine fat old eiderdown pillow, with some feathers escaping out the ends.

    I don’t know the word you are after, but I trust one or more colleagues—we call ourselves foreros—will.

    regards,
    Cuchuflete

    • #3

    DarkandStormyKnight said:

    Hello!

    This is my first time here at the forum. I’m a writer working on a novel, and I’ve hit a brain fade when it comes to a specific, unsual word.

    I need to know the word for «a word that has another word embedded in it.»

    For a pop culture reference as an example, on «Sex in the City» when Carrie asked Mr. Big if he’d ever been in love, he responded:

    «Abso-f**king-lutely»

    If anyone can help, it would be appreciated. I know the word exists, but I’ve been scouring my references for sesquipedalians (big words), and I can’t find it.

    Much thanks,
    Silas

    BTW, I found this forum because I did a search for «word lovers forum». After I registered, I realized the main intent was to help people translate from other languages. So if this is off the subject of the forum’s intended use, my sincere apologies.

    From dictionary.com
    infix — «Linguistics. To insert (a morphological element) into the body of a word»

    Not sure if that was what you’re looking for,
    -Jonathan.

    cuchuflete


    • #4

    Hello again…this seems close, but no seeegar:

    A portmanteau word is a word that fuses two function words. This use overlaps a bit with the folk term contraction, but linguists tend to avoid using the latter. Example: In French, à (to) + les (the) becomes aux (IPA: /o/), a single indivisible word that contains both meanings.
    [edit]

    Folk usage

    Outside linguistics, the words that are called blends are popularly labeled portmanteaux. The term portmanteau is used in a different, yet still not clearly defined sense, to refer to a blending of the parts of two or more words (generally the first part of one word and the ending of a second word) to combine their meanings into a single neologism.
    [

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau#Portmanteau_words

    cuchuflete


    jinti


    • #6

    This link has a couple paragraphs about infixes such as abso-f***ing-lutely.

    majlo


    • #7

    Cuchu, how would the pronunciation sound?

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    • #8

    Tmesis!

    Thank you so much, especially for the surprisingly quick replies.

    I kept trying to come up with the world, and what showed up instead was aposiopesis, and I couldn’t figure out why.

    Thanks, thanks, thanks. I and my literary character thank you.

    Silas

    cuchuflete


    • #9

    Hi Majlo,

    I don’t have the requisite skills to use a phonetic alphabet (that’s a highfallutin way of declaring my sloth…I just haven’t taken the trouble to learn…) so I’ll explain what my dictionary
    shows.
    The ‘e’ in red should be turned upside down, and the ‘e’ in blue has a horizontal line above it.
    te me´ sis

    I take this to mean that it sounds like the way I might pronounce tuh me sis, with the accent on the middle syllable.

    cuchuflete


    • #10

    Silas,
    Come back with more… absoneologisticallutely!

    • #11

    can’t we use the expression ‘nested words’?

    panjandrum


    • #12

    jpdeweerdt said:

    can’t we use the expression ‘nested words’?

    Gasp of mock shock and horror…
    What! When there’s a chance to give another airing to the only word in English that begins «tm…»:D

    I suspect that DarkandStormy’s literary figure needs tmesis.

    DarkandStormy: In relation to the BTW in your first post, as this particular alley-way is the English-Only forum, translation doesn’t feature — other than translation between the many, many different varieties of English.
    You should find that a good puzzle, such as those you have set for us, has people tumbling over one another in a confused and delightful scrum trying to get to the right word first.

    (Is the literary work really a bid for Bulwer-Lytton fame?)

    judkinsc


    • #13

    Tmesis is direct from ancient Greek. :D

    • #14

    panjandrum said:

    translation doesn’t feature

    sorry, it’s just that I had already heard this expression in English.

    Jean Paul

    NB : what does BTW stand for?

    panjandrum


    • #15

    BTW = By the way….
    If you look at the first post in this thread, you’ll see that DarkandStormyKnight used BTW to introduce some comments at the end of the post — to which I was responding. Sorry if I have been confusing. I’ll edit my post to clarify….

    • #16

    BTW : Right, that’s what I thought, but I couldn’t figure out what you meant by that in your post. I thought this was meant to me…

    Thanks for this site!

    majlo


    • #17

    What about the pronunciation? :)

    Kelly B


    • #18

    See cuchuflete’s post #9. Then ask Crystal to say it for you.

    • #19

    I looked up tmesis in two not-online dictionaries and found a slightly different definition. I think that words such as the expletive example above are probably a fairly new phenomenon to which the word tmesis has been applied for lack of a better word to describe it.

    tmesis — separation of parts of a compound word by the intervention of one or more words (as what place soever for whatsoever place) [from Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (c) 1985 by Merriam-Webster, Inc.]

    tmesis — separation of the parts of compound word by one or more intervening; for example, where I go ever instead of wherever I go. [from the American Heritage College Dictionary, third edition, (c) 1997 Houghton Mifflin]

    Since the practice of inventing new combined words in this manner is so popular, maybe someone will coin a new word for it. If someone does come up with a better term, it will probably be easier to pronounce and spell than tmesis.:)

    cuchuflete


    • #20

    My big paper dictionary has a definition that absoempaticallutely
    works: The interpolation of one or more words between the parts of a compound word.

    • #21

    cuchuflete said:

    My big paper dictionary has a definition that absoempaticallutely
    works: The interpolation of one or more words between the parts of a compound word.

    Right…compound words. Absolutely is not a compound word, so the traditional dictionary definition of tmesis doesn’t fit precisely. Lacking a better word, it will have to do.

    cuchuflete


    • #22

    Sabelotodo said:

    Right…compound words. Absolutely is not a compound word, so the traditional dictionary definition of tmesis doesn’t fit precisely. Lacking a better word, it will have to do.

    Intuition and common sense are on your side, for certain. And yet…if you dig around a little…in the murky depths I normally try to avoid…

    A compound is a word (lexeme) that consists of more than one free morpheme.

    wikipedia

    In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest language unit that carries a semantic interpretation. Morphemes are, generally, a distinctive collocation of phonemes (as the free form pin or the bound form -s of pins) having no smaller meaningful members. English example: The word «unbelievable» has three morphemes «un-«, (negatory) a bound morpheme, «-believe-» a free morpheme, and «-able». «un-» is also a prefix, «-able» is a suffix. Both are affixes.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheme

    panjandrum


    • #23

    Digging into the OED, tmesis dates from rather a long time before the XXX-eme fad emerged. It did indeed originally refer to splitting what they thought of in the 16th Century as a compound word — typically into its original constituents.

    1586 DAY Eng. Secretary II. (1625) 83 Timesis or Diacope, a division of a word compound into two parts, as, What might be soever unto a man pleasing,..for, whatsoever might be, etc.

    There seems to be a whole army out there discussing whether or not abso-bloody-lutely is tmesis or not. I seem to have exceeeded the limit of my tolerance for such discussion by some way — so I think I’ll just pretend that tmesis is OK in this context. After all if DarkandStormyKnight includes this in his book the consequent flames of controversy will do his sales no end of good:D

    • #24

    I would call it a play on words :)

    -GA

    • #25

    Surely, Gwynanne, it is a play ‘in’ words?;)

    • #26

    maxiogee said:

    Surely, Gwynanne, it is a play ‘in’ words?;)

    See, I knew someone could coin a clever new term for it!

    • #27

    cuchuflete said:

    Welcome to the Dark and Stormy Forums,

    Yes, we are word lovers. Look around this forum…grammar, syntax, and affection for a good turn of phrase, interspersed with some delightful digressions. It’s like a fine fat old eiderdown pillow, with some feathers escaping out the ends.

    I don’t know the word you are after, but I trust one or more colleagues—we call ourselves foreros—will.

    regards,
    Cuchuflete

    By the way Chu, what is the meaning of this word «forereo» if any?

    • #28

    forero = people who frequent a forum.

    Isotta


    cuchuflete


    • #30

    maxiogee said:

    forero = people who frequent a forum.

    Hi Rich,
    Maxiogee got it nearly perfect. It’s people who frequent these
    WR forums. Over a year ago, when we were far less stringent about chat, a number of forum members joined a thread in the Recursos/Resources sub-forum, and picked a name for us.

    Forero from the Spanish foro (English=forum). We have been using it since around October or November of 2005, and most people seem to prefer it to dry terms like members.

    If you use Search, and look in Recursos, you will find the orginal thread.

    regards,
    Cuchu

    ayed


    • #31

    DarkandStormyKnight said:

    Hello!

    This is my first time here at the forum. I’m a writer working on a novel, and I’ve hit a brain fade when it comes to a specific, unsual word.

    I need to know the word for «a word that has another word embedded in it.»

    For a pop culture reference as an example, on «Sex in the City» when Carrie asked Mr. Big if he’d ever been in love, he responded:

    «Abso-f**king-lutely»

    If anyone can help, it would be appreciated. I know the word exists, but I’ve been scouring my references for sesquipedalians (big words), and I can’t find it.

    Much thanks,
    Silas

    BTW, I found this forum because I did a search for «word lovers forum». After I registered, I realized the main intent was to help people translate from other languages. So if this is off the subject of the forum’s intended use, my sincere apologies.

    Well, let a native-non-speaker give you his own prey:

    Dystmesis
    :)

    suzi br


    • #32

    maxiogee said:

    Surely, Gwynanne, it is a play ‘in’ words?;)

    great — this is what I will be calling the phenomenon when I next need to refer to it!

    but I’ve also seen in-fixing used, cos it related to the other words in the same semantic field: suffix and affix and prefix…

    this makes a lot more sense to me than trying to learn how to spell tmesis :)

    • #33

    It might be called an in-tensifier ;-)
    I’d be wary of the ~fix notion as (amongst other reasons) suffix and prefix tend to be used of only parts of words.

    • #34

    Sabelotodo said:

    Since the practice of inventing new combined words in this manner is so popular, maybe someone will coin a new word for it. If someone does come up with a better term, it will probably be easier to pronounce and spell than tmesis.:)

    What about «adferb»:D

    But I still think Cuchu’s tmesis is the correct existing word and that it just hasn’t been brought into the 21st century yet.

    ayed


    • #35

    maxiogee said:

    It might be called an in-tensifier ;-)
    I’d be wary of the ~fix notion as (amongst other reasons) suffix and prefix tend to be used of only parts of words.

    What about «Intransifier» ?

    timpeac


    • #36

    Would it count for the incorrect unfusing of «another» when you hear things like «just a final nother thing…»

    suzi br


    • #37

    maxiogee said:

    I’d be wary of the ~fix notion as (amongst other reasons) suffix and prefix

    that is true — but is it relevant? there is nothing in the etymology of these words which relates to the nature of the bit being fixed … I like infix cos it is simple!

    L. suffixus from sub «upon» + figere «fasten» prefix from L. præfixus, «fix in front,» from præ «before» + root of figere «to fasten, fix»

    • #38

    majlo said:

    What about the pronunciation? :)

    I’ve actually used the word tmesis among other people using the word tmesis, and in AE, it is t-MEE-siss. The «t» is unvoiced and pronounced separately, and the middle syllable is voiced.

    However, if you say tuh-Mee-siss, we’ll forgive you.;)

    Also, when you learn classical (i.e., Greek and Roman) rhetoric, abso-fuckin-lutely is usually given as an example of tmesis.

    • #39

    suzi br said:

    that is true — but is it relevant? there is nothing in the etymology of these words which relates to the nature of the bit being fixed … I like infix cos it is simple!

    So it’s a duel you want?
    We stand back to back and walk off into the distance spreading our favourites and meet back at the same place in a year’s time and see if either has made it into popular usage?
    You’d probably win because, as you say, it is simple and people like to go with simple, usually.
    I, however, would be content with my witty construction and would be happy if even one or two were to take it up — even occasionally.

    My point about the fix of infix is that what is being infixed is not a part of a word, it is a whole word. I feel that
    —interception—
    Ah feck!
    I’ve just looked up suffix and prefix in Chambers English Dictionary. Each of the definitions use the word ‘an affix’. Looking up affix I find it refers to the part of a suffix, a prefix or — wait for it — an infix.
    So it seems that the word is there all along.
    You win.:cool: — I yield.:eek:

    • #40

    A neologism is a word that is made up, often by combining two words in the «embedded word» fashion. I know, it is not exact, but it is possibly a little more common than tmesis.

    It took me forever to remember it though.

    :)
    GA

    • #41

    Surely a neologism is any new word — and the term tells one nothing about the word except that it is new.

    Источник

    Is there a term for a word that occurs unbroken within another word? For example, the word “fun” in “funeral”, or “drag” in “hydragog”.

    The closest thing I could find from my search was the term “kangaroo word“, which refers to a word that contains the letters of its synonym, in the correct order (though not necessarily consecutively).

    I am currently using “substring” as a substitute in my essay. Unfortunately, “substring” applies to any selection of consecutive characters from the containing word, and doesn’t convey the fact that the subset is a complete English word.

    I have tagged this phrase-requests, but I would appreciate single words as well. I will have to use the term quite often, so the less awkward it is, the better.

    Answer

    There is a historical “question” on ELU about Matryoshka words (matryoshka is a Russian doll which contains identical smaller dolls) which might provide a term to use, although that would be easier to apply to the long word rather than the substring.

    It seems that kangaroo word is rather apt, but it’s extremely limiting to apply it to a word containing self-synonyms. I see no reason why you should not use joey word to describe the short word which is included in the longer one. You might need to explain why you have chosen “joey” as it may not be obvious that it’s the term for a baby kangaroo; and if you use it as an ordinary noun you may need to set it off in italics to indicate its technical use:

    The word hydragog contains the joey words Hydra, drag and agog.

    Attribution
    Source : Link , Question Author : Asad Saeeduddin , Answer Author : Andrew Leach

    Источник

    Well, the normal search mode cannot do this.* The regex mode can do searches like this. You don’t need to enter anything special, just tila. You only need wildcards if you want to search for two strings with something in between. E.g. you want to find «special knowledge», «specialist knowledge», «specialized knowledge» and other variants. Then you’d enter «special.*knowledge». The full stop is the any-character wildcard, and the asterisk stands for «any number of occurrences». So .* is largely t… See more

    Well, the normal search mode cannot do this.* The regex mode can do searches like this. You don’t need to enter anything special, just tila. You only need wildcards if you want to search for two strings with something in between. E.g. you want to find «special knowledge», «specialist knowledge», «specialized knowledge» and other variants. Then you’d enter «special.*knowledge». The full stop is the any-character wildcard, and the asterisk stands for «any number of occurrences». So .* is largely the same as the * in MQ. Note that regex search is extremely slow compared to normal searches. It’s fine for a db with a hundred thousand entries, but it’s not really practical if you have several million entries in your db. There is a regex cheat sheet in the Help menu.

    The new version will eventually be hosted on my site, it’s just that updating the site is a bit of a pain.
    Highlight/Filter/-Filter help refine searches and find the relevant bits in your text. E.g. you do a search with a French search term and you know the English result you’re looking for is a two-word term where you already know one word. Enter that in the highlight box, click highlight and all the hits will be highlighted in the list so they’re easier to find in that wall of text. You also get stats at the top of the window in parens (highlight gives you stats of the hits in the displayed hit list, which is capped at 500 hits). Filter hides all the hits that don’t contain the filter term and -Filter hides all that do. You can often get the same result by using the main search boxes but 1) you can’t always do negative searches in the main search box and 2) Filter/-Filter usually executes much faster.

    * That’s because TMLookup does its searches using a special text search technology called FTS in the SQLite database engine. FTS makes word searches on very large databases extremely fast, but it has its limitations: it can’t do fuzzy searches and it can’t do in-word searches. CAT tools have other similar text search technologies in whatever database engine they use, which usually have fuzzy and in-word searches — at the expense of slower speed and larger file sizes.

    ▲ Collapse

    Источник

    In need of some nice word puzzles that will keep your students busy? Ask them to find as many words as they can within another word.

    • They must use only the letters within the words.
    • The letters can be in any order.
    • They can use as few letters as they need.

    Then I’d share some examples and non-examples: “I” and “red” are both valid, but “rider” is not since there’s only one ‘r’ in “soldier.”

    This simple task lead to some students opting to stay inside during recess and working together to find more words. Then, every time they’d ask me to check their list, I’d have to say. “Sorry, there are still more. A lot more.” And the would go into a frenzy, diving back into their lists and dictionaries.

    I learned to put some goalposts on the board so they wouldn’t come to me with only 5 words. Perhaps: Bronze medal for 20 words. Silver for 35. Gold for 60. Platinum Emerald Diamond for the person or group who finds the most!

    Soldier

    So… how many words can you find within “soldier”? 20? 35? 60? Even more?

    Click to see my list!

    1. del
    2. deli
    3. delis
    4. die
    5. dies
    6. dire
    7. do
    8. doe
    9. doer
    10. doers
    11. does
    12. dole
    13. doles
    14. dose
    15. dries
    16. I
    17. id
    18. ides
    19. idle
    20. idler
    21. idlers
    22. idles
    23. idol
    24. idols
    25. ire
    26. is
    27. isle
    28. led
    29. lei
    30. leis
    31. lid
    32. lids
    33. lie
    34. lied
    35. lier
    36. lies
    37. lire
    38. lode
    39. lodes
    40. lord
    41. lords
    42. lore
    43. lose
    44. loser
    45. ode
    46. odes
    47. oil
    48. oiled
    49. oiler
    50. oilers
    51. oils
    52. old
    53. older
    54. oldie
    55. oldies
    56. olds
    57. ole
    58. or
    59. ore
    60. ores
    61. oriel
    62. oriels
    63. red
    64. redo
    65. reds
    66. resold
    67. rid
    68. ride
    69. rides
    70. rids
    71. riled
    72. riles
    73. rise
    74. rod
    75. rode
    76. rods
    77. roe
    78. role
    79. roles
    80. rose
    81. side
    82. sidle
    83. silo
    84. sir
    85. sire
    86. sired
    87. sled
    88. slid
    89. slide
    90. slider
    91. so
    92. sod
    93. soil
    94. soiled
    95. sol
    96. sold
    97. solder
    98. sole
    99. solid
    100. sore

    Mermaid

    One more? Can you find ten words within “mermaid?” 20? 30? 40? 50!?

    Click to reveal the words in “mermaid”

    1. a
    2. ad
    3. admire
    4. aid
    5. aide
    6. aim
    7. aimed
    8. air
    9. aired
    10. am
    11. amid
    12. are
    13. arid
    14. arm
    15. armed
    16. dam
    17. dame
    18. dare
    19. dear
    20. die
    21. dim
    22. dime
    23. dimmer
    24. dire
    25. dram
    26. dream
    27. ear
    28. era
    29. I
    30. id
    31. idea
    32. ire
    33. mad
    34. made
    35. maid
    36. maim
    37. maimed
    38. maimer
    39. mare
    40. me
    41. media
    42. mid
    43. mime
    44. mimed
    45. mired
    46. rad
    47. raid
    48. ram
    49. rammed
    50. read
    51. ream
    52. red
    53. rid
    54. ride
    55. rim
    56. rimmed

    Develop An Algorithm

    Then, go beyond a simple word problem and ask students to develop a set of steps, or an algorithm, to find as many words as possible. Rather than randomly grabbing letters, what pattern can be employed? Get kids thinking about the most efficient way to solve the problem.

    I had students who ate these puzzles up. They’d end up with a dictionary in hand, double-checking words and even finding new words to use! Kids loved to collaborate and figure out which words they were missing.

    Differentiation information in your inbox.

    I’ll send you one or two emails a month to help you better understand and differentiate for gifted students. Get free resources now!

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