According to Jamie Lynn Spears, she is the originator of the phrase “thingy-mah-jig.” In an article at http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/12/britneys.sister.ap/index.html she says:
Jamie Lynn Spears is the little sister to pop singer Britney Spears.
Just thought I’d post that little factoid since I’m sure someone will ask about the origin of that phrase sometime in the future. It will be nice to have the answer readily available.
The term probably started life as thingumbob which appears in the OED in 1751.
Earlier(1680) there was a phrase thingum thangum which was the same kind of thing.
By 1824, people were saying thingumajigs. After that it was a free-for-all and it were spelt all which ways!
Tell Britney’s sister that Like, I mean, she’s totally full of herself.
Unless she’s channeling a 19th century writer, then I don’t think she invented it, dude.
I’m with samclem here. Heck, that is one full of taural excrement kid.
I wonder what else she invented.
The Internet?