Does it strike you as odd that we have so many names for stuff that either doesn’t have a name of its own or else we can’t remember it – if we ever heard it to start with?
How many names for that sort of thing can we come up with?
Gizmo
Whatchamacallit
Thingum
Whatzit
Dololly
Who will name the 100th one?
Thingamajig.
By my count, that’s #9.
I’m trying to think of the one that’s used so much when describing some mystery product that some fictional company is supposed to produce. Anybody?
Frabastat
Guzinta
Doo-hickey
Thingy
Thingie-bobber.
My favorite, that I learned from a college buddy:
Utebanger.
My mom calls them “hoobleygogs”
I’ve also heard:
Dealy-boppers
Maybe that product I was trying to remember is a widgit. I know that a grommet is like an eyelet and so it’s a real name for a real thing, but this thing I’m trying to remember may be a variation on grommet and widgit or something fused from the two – or something totally different.
Je ne sais quoi
hoopdooley
Festeris (fa-STAIR-is)
The name of the thing you’re looking for when you can’t recall the name of the thing you’re looking for.
“Susan, where’s the…the…oh, you know…the…where the hell’s the festeris?”
Whoozamafitzle. I have no idea how to spell it, but that’s what I say.
Whoseawhatzit
I have that Little Mermaid song in my head now.
".…I’ve got gadgets and gizmos aplenty,
I’ve got whosits and whatzits galore.
Want a thingamabob?
I’ve got twenty!"
Doojamahflop(per)
Widget
Hootus
whatchamo
framis
Frobnitz (pl. frobnitzem. Sometimes shortened to frob.)–An unspecified physical object, usually of a technological nature. Related terms frobnule, frobule, or frobozz may refer to either physical or nonphysical objects.
The verb frobnicate, which means roughly “manipulate a frobnitz” is also often shortened to frob. This can lead to constructions like, “Please frob that frob.” This sort of sentence may be confusing to the unintiated.
There is also gorets, the unknowable ur-noun, which can only be defined by implication. “The gorets were falling when the aliens came for our echinoderms.”
Sorry ** badbadrubberpiggy **, but Dealy-boppers are the antennaes on a headband.
Whatisface is the equivalent of whatzit for when you don’t know a persons name.
Sumnabitch = when you are frustrated that you can’t find the part and also can’t remember its name. “I was fixing the lawn mower and I lost that….sumanbitch in the grass.”
Fuzzlewuzzle
Doodlefritzer
Dooder.
Example: “Girls, each of you needs a hair-dooder after you comb your hair, to keep it nice.”
Summarizing (with counts):
Doodads
hickies
thingamabobs
Gizmo
Whatchamacallit
Thingum
Whatzit
Dololly
Thingamajig
Frabastat (10)
Guzinta
Doo-hickey
Thingy
Thingie-bobber
Utebanger
hoobleygogs
Dealy-boppers
widgit
Je ne sais quoi
hoopdooley (20)
Festeris (fa-STAIR-is)
Whoozamafitzle
Whoseawhatzit
Doojamahflop(per)
Widget
Hootus
whatchamo
framis
Frobnitz (pl. frobnitzem)
frobnule (30)
frobule
frobozz
gorets
Whatisface
whatzit
Sumnabitch
Fuzzlewuzzle
Doodlefritzer
Dooder (39)
Really? I thought those were “feely-boppers”. Though that’s what the Dope is for, fighting ignorance & all!
I used to think “ooks” was a term my mom made up for those little picture-hangy gadgets. Then she bought me some when I got my first apartment, and I discovered that’s actually what the package says.
Doomaflahdgy (do ma floj ee)