| cleft infinitive |
| Definition: Another name for the split infinitive: An infinitive that has an adverb between the to and the verbal part. |
| Example: In the phrase to boldly split, the infinitive is to split and boldly is the adverb that splits it. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: The term's first citation is from 1893: "My paper on the cleft infinitive, printed in the American Journal of Philology." (F. Hall in Nation (N.Y.) LVI. 274/2) |