circumfic/confix

What matters here is the name of the template. {{confix}} and {{circumfix}} do different things. If the names both refer to the same thing, then I agree that {{confix}} is badly named, but I guess that's just how it is for the moment. {{circumfix}} is the one that actually works the way you intended.

Thanks a lot. Now I understand what you meant. And you were right. The circumfix template clearly is the better choice.

Contrary to English, you won't find a word in German merely consisting of a prefix and a suffix alone (at least I haven't found any true example by now). You can always track down some kind of base (Grundwort),

For example, the suffix -artig is itself a compound of Art + -ig. And at times you can see users struggling with that: eigenartig, abartig.

So I definitely think, circumfix is the better template here, because it is explicitly pointing to a base.

The main case where {{confix}} is used with no base, as far as I know, is for Latin and Greek-derived words like aquaphobia. However, I really doubt whether the two parts of that word can really be properly called affixes.

The noun aquaphobia is a fine example. It is in my opinion a compound noun consisting of a head and a modifier. Here, phobia is the head while aqua merely modifies the head.

The concept of decompounding a word into a prefix and a suffix doesn't make much sence to me, since you always have a starting point, a base. And the starting point (or head) in this case is phobia not aqua.

But for the German terms this concept doesn't apply anyway. "Wasserangst" is a compound and "Aquaphobie" is considered a borrowed word with Latin and Greek roots, so no need here to decompound into a prefix and a suffix.