infix

Verb

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

1. (archaic, transitive) To set; to fasten or fix by piercing or thrusting in.
   • to infix a sting, spear, or dart
   • […] 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.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]...
2. (transitive) To instill.
3. (transitive) To insert a morpheme inside an existing word.

Noun

UK/ˈɪnfɪks/

infix (plural infixes)

1. An affix inserted inside a root, such as -ma- in English edumacation.
   • I am not pleased with one or two of the noun cases (they are too similar to others) and I want to change the way that the Focus category (see Section 3.5 of the grammar) is manifested (using word-order instead of an infix or other phonological marker). All in all, the language is structured almost...2006, “Ithkuil Q & A”, in The Conlanger's Library, archived from the original on 14 Jan 2025, page 6
2. (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.
   • 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, Derek Nurse, Tense and Aspect in Bantu, →ISBN
   • […] but the second example contravenes all the rules, as the negative infix should NEVER precede any Set 2 affix present in the complex.2008, George Hewitt, Are Verbs Always What They Seem to Be?
3. (dated, Bantu linguistics) A prefix that always occurs in the position immediately before the verb root, and which may in turn be preceded by other prefixes.
4. (proscribed) Synonym of interfix.

   Synonyms:

   interfix