liaafriani

infixes

An infix is a word element (a type of affix) that can be inserted within the base form of a word (rather than at its beginning or end) to create a new word or intensify meaning. Also called an integrated adjective.

The process of inserting an infix is called infixation. The most common type of infix in English grammar is the expletive, as in "fan-bloody-tastic." Rarely used in formal writing, expletive infixation can sometimes be heard in colloquial language and slang.

Expletive Infixation
- "In English the only things that can be infixed are those expressive words which are used to intensify meaning. All of the seriously offensive intensifiers can be used this way, but there are plenty of sweeter-sounding remodellings too like flippin(g), frigging(g), blinkin(g) and bloomin(g), as in unbeflippinglievable and fanfrigginstastic. One of the most famous examples is, of course, Eliza Doolittle's 'absobloominlutely.'"

" . . . [Infixing is] a complex process with an elaborate set of restrictions. For instance, infixing doesn't happen just anywhere in the word. Not all intensifiers can be infixed either. And not all words can take an infix."
(Kate Burridge, Blooming English: Observations on the Roots, Cultivation and Hybrids of the English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2004)

- "Native speakers of English have intuitions about where in a word the infix is inserted. Consider where your favorite expletive infix goes in these words:

fantastic, education, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Stillaguamish, emancipation, absolutely, hydrangea

Most speakers agree on these patterns, though there are some dialectal variations. You likely found that the infix is inserted at the following points:

fan-***-tastic, edu-***-cation, Massa-***-chusetts, Phila-***-delphia, Stilla-***-guamish, emanci-***-pation, abso-***-lutely, hy-***-drangea

The infix gets inserted before the syllable that receives the most stress. And it cannot be inserted anywhere else in the word."

confixes

confix (pl. confixes)

1. linguistics - An affix consisting of a prefix and suffix affixed simultaneously to the root
• page 265:
  "As is demonstrated by m-as-ku, tens are derived from the confix m- ... -hu."
2. linguistics rare - An affix which is not divided, and which does not divide a root: thus, a prefix, suffix, or interfix
• page 84:
  "22. A PREFIX: a confix which precedes a root."

Synonyms

• prefix-suffix unit: circumfix, ambifix

Coordinate terms

Verb

confix (third-person singular simple present confixes, present participle confixing, simple past and past participle confixed)

1. obsolete - To make firm; to fix in a particular place or state
• a. 1623, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure:
  "But Tuesday night last gone in's garden-house / He knew me as a wife. As this is true, / Let me in safety raise me from my knees; / Or else for ever be confixed here, / A marble monument!"

superfix

superfixes is a morpheme consisting of a pattern of stress, intonation, or juncture features that are associated with the syllables of a word or phrase (as the distinctive stress patterns of the noun subject and the verb subject)