infix

See also: Infix

English

WOTD – 2 August 2006

Etymology

Back-formation from Middle English infixed (“stuck in”), from Latin infixus, past participle of infigō (“to fasten in”).

Pronunciation

Noun

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɪnfɪks/

• Audio (US); “infix” (noun):

  (file)

Verb

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfɪks/, /ˈɪnfɪks/

• Audio (US); “infix” (verb):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪks

Verb

infix (third-person singular simple present infixes, present participle infixing, simple past and past participle infixed)

1. (transitive, archaic) To set; to fasten or fix by piercing or thrusting in.

   to infix a sting, spear, or dart

   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     […] in her eye I find
     A wonder, or a wondrous miracle,
     The shadow of myself form’d in her eye:
     Which being but the shadow of your son,
     Becomes a sun and makes your son a shadow:
     I do protest I never loved myself
     Till now infixed I beheld myself
     Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Book 1, in Fables, Ancient and Modern, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 11,^[1]

     The fatal Dart a ready Passage found,
     And deep within his Heart infix’d the Wound:

   • 1779, David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion‎^[2], part 10, page 100:

     Consider that innumerable race of insects, which either are bred on the body of each animal, or flying about infix their stings in him.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 41, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     Gnawed within and scorched without, with the infixed, unrelenting fangs of some incurable idea; such an one, could he be found, would seem the very man to dart his iron and lift his lance against the most appalling of all brutes.

2. (transitive) To instill.
3. (transitive, linguistics) To insert a morpheme inside an existing word.

Translations

to fasten or fix by piercing or thrusting in

• Bulgarian: пъхам (bg) (pǎham), затъквам (bg) (zatǎkvam)
• Finnish: iskeä (fi)
• Turkish: iç ek (tr)

Noun

infix (plural infixes)

1. (linguistics) An affix inserted inside a root, such as -ma- in English edumacation.
3. (some authors when describing agglutinative languages, otherwise dated) A prefix that is not at the beginning of a word, such as the con- of reconcile, or a suffix that is not at the end of a word, such as the -al of nationality.
   • 2008, Derek Nurse, Tense and Aspect in Bantu, →ISBN:

     The infix position contains (pronominal) object markers, showing agreement with the object(s), which might be one or more noun phrases following the verb, or a foregoing or previously mentioned object marking.

   • 2008, George Hewitt, Are Verbs Always What They Seem to Be?‎^[3]:

     […] but the second example contravenes all the rules, as the negative infix should NEVER precede any Set 2 affix present in the complex.

   • 2018, Gloria Cocchi, chapter 5, in Structuring Variation in Romance Linguistics and Beyond, →DOI:

     […] at least in languages, like Swahili, which exhibit morphologically different tense/aspect infixes in affirmative and negative clauses […]

   • 2023, Bostoen, de Schryver, Guérois & Pacchiarotti, editor, On reconstructing Proto-Bantu grammar, page 709:

     The morpheme in question is the reflexive prefix ('infix' in the traditional Bantu terminology).

4. (Bantu linguistics, dated) A prefix that always occurs in the position immediately before the verb root, and which may in turn be preceded by other prefixes.
5. (linguistics, proscribed) A morpheme that always appears between other morphemes in a word, such as -i- and -o- in English (i.e. an interfix).

Coordinate terms

• (types of affixes): adfix, affix, ambifix, circumfix, confix, disfix, duplifix, interfix, libfix, postfix, prefix, prefixoid, simulfix, suffix, suffixoid, suprafix, transfix

Derived terms

• infixal
• infixation
• infixion
• infix notation
• infix operator

 

Translations

morpheme inserted into word

• Afrikaans: infiks, tussenvoegsel
• Armenian: միջածանց (hy) (miǰacancʻ)
• Breton: enger m
• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: infix (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 中綴／中缀 (zh) (zhōngzhuì)

• Czech: infix m, vpona f
• Dutch: tussenvoegsel (nl) n, infix (nl) n
• Esperanto: enafikso
• Finnish: infiksi (fi), sisäliite (fi)
• French: infixe (fr) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Infix (de) n
• Greek: επένθημα n (epénthima)
• Japanese: 挿入辞 (そうにゅうじ, sōnyūji), 接中辞 (せっちゅうじ, setchūji)
• Khmer: អាគម (km) (ʔaakum)
• Korean: 삽입사 (sabipsa)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ناوگِر (nawgir)

  Northern Kurdish: navbendik (ku), navgir (ku)

• Persian: میان‌وند (miyân-vand)
• Polish: infiks (pl) m, wrostek (pl) m
• Portuguese: infixo (pt) m
• Romanian: infix (ro) n
• Russian: и́нфикс (ru) m (ínfiks)
• Spanish: interfijo (es) m, infijo (es) m
• Swahili: kiambishi kati
• Swedish: infix (sv) n
• Tagalog: gitlapi (tl)
• Turkish: orta ek, iç ek (tr)
• Vietnamese: trung tố (vi)
• Welsh: mewnddodiad m

See also

• anastomosis
• postfix
• Category:English infixes

Further reading

• infix on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “infix”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “infix”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “infix”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• “infix”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “infix” (US) / “infix” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• Eugene E. Loos [et al.], editors (2003), “infix”, in Glossary of Linguistic Terms, Dallas, Tex.: SIL International.

Anagrams

• fixin'

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin īnfixus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [iɱˈfiks]

Noun

infix m (plural infixos)

1. (linguistics) infix

Old Occitan

Adjective

infix (feminine infixa)

1. stuck, broken

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French infixe, from Latin infixus. Doublet of înfipt.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [inˈfiks]

Noun

infix n (plural infixe)

1. infix

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	infix	infixul		infixe	infixele
genitive-dative	infix	infixului		infixe	infixelor
vocative	infixule			infixelor

Related terms

• afix
• prefix
• sufix

Swedish

Noun

infix n

1. (linguistics) infix