Social Question

Zen_Again's avatar

Do you tumbarumba?

Asked by Zen_Again (9936points) February 15th, 2010

Tumbarumba is another name for tmesis, one form of which is that curious trick of stuffing one word into the middle of another.
“Abso-bloody-lutely”, “a whole nother”, “fan-bloody-tastic” and “any-blooming-where” are classic cases, though many of the most powerful examples include the F-word.

For a reason buried in local linguistic history it’s a verbal tic Australians are fond of, who insert their favourite adjective, “bloody”, to great effect.

(From http://www.worldwidewords.org – lots of fun!)

So do you do this? Examples, please.

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20 Answers

thriftymaid's avatar

No, I don’t do it. The ones I hear most are guaran-damn-tee, global-xxxx-warming, and recently heard a song called Ala-freakin-bama.

Cruiser's avatar

Abso-fuckin-lutly Cap-a-tan.

knitfroggy's avatar

I do a lot. Un-f’n-believable and Fan-f’n-tastic are my favorites.

liminal's avatar

I love to quote John Wayne: “That is re-god-damn-diculous.”

wilma's avatar

Yes I do, a-whole-nother, I use that one a lot.

autumn43's avatar

I thought ‘tumbarumba’ was a word in Lady Gaga’s song ‘Bad Romance’..

rebbel's avatar

I ab-so-lu-te-ly ne-ver do it.

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

Nyeso!did I do alright?

Bluefreedom's avatar

I’ve been known to do it at one time or another. This time not being one of those occasions.

Broken_Arrow's avatar

I tumbarumba and I rumbatumba too

LeotCol's avatar

Un-fucking-likely! Is one that I tend to use when I find myself in dire straights.

I’m more of a spoonerisms fan

mzehnich's avatar

I do, and thank you for inadvertently teaching me what the definition of such a thing is!

And yes, as with most others who responded, I usually insert expletives when I use them. In fact, I can’t think of a time I haven’t used expletives, even in positive words (such as fantastic). Food for thought!

CMaz's avatar

fuckin-ay

Cock-alocka-lishous

AstroChuck's avatar

No, I tumbabossanova.

nebule's avatar

I did this just the other day on my blog (it was “all a-bloody-long!”) and wondered whether anyone else did it…and also where I’d got it from… interesting thanks xx

Jeruba's avatar

No, I don’t. It can be very effective when done once in a while, but it becomes annoying, cheesy, and boring if it occurs with any frequency. Not to mention losing the power of emphasis that it was designed to have.

lloydbird's avatar

I’m off to bed.
Good – *#¬(/^ – night!

Zen_Again's avatar

@Jeruba * ab – sigh – lutely * agree.

autumn43's avatar

Not exactly the same, but I had a teacher once who said ‘What the ding-dong day are you doing?!’ and he was FURIOUS. But it was very hard not to laugh. I’ll always remember that.

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