Infix

In English, we create many words by simply adding an affix to a root word. An affix is typically a small word segment or morpheme added to the beginning or end of a word. For example, a sale becomes a presale before it’s open to the public and the approximate time for lunch is noonish. English adds prefixes to the beginning of a word, and suffixes to the end of a word, to bring about a new idea or meaning. But many people don’t realize it’s possible to insert an affix to the middle of a word—these are called infixes. You may not be aware of when to use infixes in the English language because there aren’t many instances of them, but they are prevalent in other languages.

Infix Definition

An infix is a type of affix, a morpheme or a group of morphemes (the smallest linguistic units of meaning) that are inserted within a root word or stem to alter its meaning or create a new word. Unlike prefixes and suffixes, which are attached at the beginning or end of a root word respectively, infixes are inserted into the body of the word. While infixes are not common in English, they are widely used in many other languages, including Tagalog, Greek, and several Native American languages.

Although infixes aren’t as common as prefixes and suffixes in English, they do appear on occasion to help convey meaning in a grammatically correct manner.

As a reminder, a word stem is the part of the word that carries the lexical meaning. In essence, an infix splits up a word and adds meaning or emphasis to it with an additional morpheme.

Notice the -s is added to the root word, runner, instead of to the end of the entire hyphenated compound word (e.g., runner-ups); this is an example of an infix. Many people confuse this process with a process called tmesis, where an entire word is inserted into the body of a compound word.

For example, for emphasis, you might say, "un-freaking-believable!" The original word is unbelievable, which is a compound (un+believable).

Fig. 1 - An infix is similar to those bonus pieces of bread in the middle of a towering sandwich.

Infix Morphemes

As mentioned, infixes are almost always composed with a word part or morpheme, so it may be helpful to define the term morpheme.

So a morpheme can be anything from a single letter—like the letter ‘s,’ which can indicate plurality—or an entire word, and anything in between, so long as it carries meaning.

An example of an infix in English is when you add the morpheme ‘s’ to the middle of the word father-in-law to make it plural. The correct form is fathers-in-law, not father-in-laws.

Infixation is a morphological complexity, which means it occurs on a morphological level.

Because an infix interrupts a word, it will usually sit between two morphemes of that word. It adds complexity to the word at hand, both in meaning and structure.

Infixation Examples

While English does not typically use infixes in standard usage, they do occur in informal or colloquial language. An example is the use of "-bloody-" or "-freaking-" in words like "abso-bloody-lutely" or "un-freaking-believable".

In other languages, infixes are more common. For example, an Austronesian language spoken by the Tagalog people in the Philippines regularly uses infixation. The infix "-um" helps create the present and past tense of Tagalog verbs.

We can find another example of infixation in the language of Malay. See the infix er change the meaning of the words in the table below.

When to Use Infixes in the English Language

As previously stated, there aren't as many examples of infixes in the English language. You can't just insert any morpheme in the middle of any word and have it make sense. There are just a few specific instances that use infixation.

Infixes to Pluralize Hyphenated Compounds

The use of infixation to create the term fathers-in-law extends to other hyphenated compound words. Essentially, to make a compound word plural, you can't just add an a 's' to the end of the word, as you can with so many other types of words. Instead, you must add the 's' to the word stem, which is the part of the word that carries the lexical meaning. Sometimes the word stem is at the beginning of the compound, which would require the 's' to appear in the middle.

Colloquialism Infixation

You'll probably only hear these colloquialisms in very specific contexts, but both use the process of infixation, and most native English speakers inherently understand how to use them.

The first is the infix "-iz" found in hip-hop slang.

This style of slang is rather outdated, but you might still hear it used in an ironic sense. The infix "-iz" is inserted after the word-initial consonant—which is the first consonant of the word— to create a more "hip" version of the word.

The second colloquialism is called the Homeric infix, named after Homer Simpson from the TV show The Simpsons. Part of Homer's character is his lack of intelligence, so you might hear him insert the ma sound in the middle of a complex word. This psuedo-sophistimacation makes a mockery of an intellectual person or subject.

Fig. 2 - Is Homer Simpson's use of infix make him a linguistic genius?

For example, in season 9, episode 3 of The Simpsons, Homer picks up his daughter's saxophone and fondly calls it a "saxamaphone."

Although the morpheme "-ma has no inherent meaning, the context of the speaker (an unintelligent yet loveable moron named Homer) and the subject help to illustrate the intent, which is to illustrate the stupidity of the speaker. Others found this a funny way to poke fun at intellectuals, and so the tradition of the Homeric infix has lived on.

Expletive Infixes

There is debate among linguistics and rhetoricians as to whether the following is an example of tmesis or infixation:

Most infixes are morphemes, but in the case of expletive infixes, an entire word interrupts the continuous word absolutely. This phenomenon is exclusively seen with rude or expletive words.

Few people explicitly know the rules as to where to place the expletive, and yet they seem to understand where it goes inherently. In English, the inserted element (whether it's an infix or an entire word) is placed right before a stressed syllable, usually the one with the strongest stress.

Infix Words vs. Tmesis

As previously mentioned, tmesis also involves inserting sounds into the middle of a word, but there are some significant differences between tmesis and infix words.

The noticeable difference between tmesis and infixation is that tmesis is the interruption of a compound word, whereas infixation is the interruption of a simple or non-compound word. Additionally, tmesis typically involves the insertions of whole words rather than affixes. It is the line between tmesis and expletive infixes that is often blurred.

While infixes may share phonological properties with tmesis, such as how they segment the word they're interrupting, they remain separate despite the similar definitions and uses.