Tmesis is a figure of speech in which parts of a word are separated by the interjection of another word. It’s usually employed in casual conversation and serves to emphasize a particular point. Someone might say, “That’s a whole nother story” — dividing “another” with “whole” — if they want to express that there’s more to the situation than it appears. Or they could say, “Stick that laundry any old where,” to casually give instructions. “Tmesis” comes directly from the Greek “tmēsis,” which means “act of cutting.”