The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.1257  Monday, 23 June 2003

[1]     From:   David Friedberg <
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        Date:   Friday, 20 Jun 2003 20:47:34 -0400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.1240 Re: Funeral Elegye

[2]     From:   Peter Groves <
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        Date:   Saturday, 21 Jun 2003 02:05:22 +0000
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.1240 Re: Funeral Elegye


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           David Friedberg <
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Date:           Friday, 20 Jun 2003 20:47:34 -0400
Subject: 14.1240 Re: Funeral Elegye
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.1240 Re: Funeral Elegye

Re:    tmesis

That was the answer to a clue in the very cryptic Observer Crossword
puzzle by "Ximenes" in the fifties.

The clue was 'mis misset set'

The phrase itself is a tmesis; and 'mis set' is an anagram (meaning
mis-set, as by a human printer) of 'tmesis'..

Convoluted meanings in twelve letters.

David Friedberg

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Peter Groves <
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Date:           Saturday, 21 Jun 2003 02:05:22 +0000
Subject: 14.1240 Re: Funeral Elegye
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.1240 Re: Funeral Elegye

>>I got introduced to that kind of thing in the air force (US)
>>twenty
>>years before that and thought the guy using
>>"un-fucking-believable" and
>>similar terms (e.g., "in-goddam-credible,"
>>"inte--fucking--lectual") had
>>invented the mode.  I thought he was absolutely brilliant.  He
>>WAS, in
>>fact, a bright fellow.  I wonder who did invent it.
>
>Forgive me if I've missed a post suggesting this kind of expression is,
>I believe, an example of the rhetorical figure called tmesis.
>
>Bruce Golden

And for some reason it sounds best when the interpolation directly
precedes the main stressed syllable of the word: thus
"un-fucking-believable" is less effective than "unbe-fucking-lievable"

Peter Groves

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