The word for today is…

infix (noun) –

a derivational or inflectional affix appearing in the body of a word

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : A word for the etymology purists today. Like prefixes and suffixes, infixes are part of the general class of affixes (“sounds or letters attached to or inserted within a word to produce a derivative word or an inflectional form”). Infixes are relatively rare in English, but you can find them in the plural forms of some words. For example, cupful, spoonful, and passerby can be pluralized as cupsful, spoonsful, and passersby, using “s” as an infix. Another example is the insertion of an (often offensive) intensifier into a word, as in fan-freakin’-tastic. Such whole-word insertions are sometimes called infixes, though this phenomenon is more traditionally known as tmesis.

If you enjoyed this BFD word of the day please consider sharing it with your friends and, especially, your children.

David is a retired surgeon originally from London who came to New Zealand twenty-seven years ago after being delayed in Singapore for thirteen years on leaving the UK. He was coerced into studying Latin...