# Your favourite words for \*thingies\*?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 20, 2021, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345 "2021-02-20T12:51:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@its\_the\_daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/its_the_daddy)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/1 "2021-02-20T12:51:37Z")
In August '06 `corkboard` said:
“C’mon, people. They’re called _thingies_”.
(This was regarding mooring bollards for boats)
But what are your favourite words for _thingies_?
My (very) late uncle used:
“Pass me that _Wombeck_” or
“Don’t trip over the _Spagheelia_”
I’d like to learn a few new ones…
---
### Author:  [@eburacum\_45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum_45)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/2 "2021-02-20T12:59:18Z")
My daughter called them ‘dingwa’, which was her way of pronouncing ‘thing’ at an early age.
We still call the television remote ‘the Dingwa’ in our family. Where’s the Dingwa? Under the cushion!
---
### Author:  [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/3 "2021-02-20T13:32:09Z")
Doohickeys. Thingamabobs. Whatsits. Jobberdos. Widgets.
---
### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/4 "2021-02-20T13:38:20Z")
Gizwatch.
Doowhatsis.
Hoojiebob.
I’m lovin’ Dingwa! That’s a great word!
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/5 "2021-02-20T14:22:56Z")
From watching The Young Ones and Father Ted, ‘thingie’ now means ‘penis’ to me.
As to the OP, I usually just say ‘thing’ (or else find out the correct nomenclature).
---
### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/6 "2021-02-20T15:49:54Z")
Dealies.
(Courtesy Homer S.)
---
### Author:  [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/7 "2021-02-20T15:54:10Z")
“Fiendish thingies,” with a hard “g.” ([_Help!_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help!_(film)) is required viewing if one is to understand our family conversations.)
---
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/8 "2021-02-20T16:56:49Z")
Whatsit.
---
### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/9 "2021-02-20T17:14:13Z")
Veeblefetzers, of course.
---
### Author:  [@its\_the\_daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/its_the_daddy)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/10 "2021-02-20T18:02:05Z")
Can’t use _whatsit_ any more: in my household the response is “ **a cheesy crisp??** ”
Really, they’re Wotsits™, a horrible cheese-powder coated corn snack.
Also:
_…thingamajig_
_…oojamaflip_
and, of course _…nadger_
Note 1 The last has pedigree going back (at least) to [The Goon Show Site - Script - The Nadger Plague (Series 7, Episode 3)](http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=s07e03_the_nadger_plague). It probably originates much earlier, in British army slang. We are of course aware of another …er… physiological meaning.
Note 2 We should always try to employ the typographical convention above (…) to denote the brief pause while the user tries to find the right …word.
I love _…dingwa_ and _…veeblefetzer_. I humbly petition the TM’s to be allowed to use them.
---
### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/11 "2021-02-20T18:13:37Z")
From Futurama, “kajiggers”.
---
### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/12 "2021-02-20T18:33:16Z")
[Jawn](https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/jawn/). I don’t really use the word but I’m fascinated by it’s emergent growth in the Philadelphia area. Even if I called something a ‘jawn’ nobody around here would know what I was talking about.
---
### Author:  [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/13 "2021-02-20T18:43:09Z")
You mean the whatchamacallit? Or the hooziewhatsit?
---
### Author:  [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/14 "2021-02-20T19:55:01Z")
Dingus
---
### Author:  [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/15 "2021-02-20T20:10:01Z")
Doodads. So many doodads.
---
### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/16 "2021-02-20T20:12:50Z")
I never did say what word I do use. It’s ‘thing’. Often with a modifer, the ‘sink thing’, or the ‘TV thing’, or something like the ‘car thing’ of which there are a lot of different ones. But I’m pretty consistent with it so I don’t know my wife doesn’t understand what I’m talking about.
---
### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/17 "2021-02-20T20:13:48Z")
Same. “You know, the thing.”
Or if I’m really desperate, “The thing with the thing.”
---
### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/18 "2021-02-20T20:14:45Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#):
>
> Or if I’m really desperate, “The thing with the thing.”
Right. Once you get down to that kind of detail it’s perfectly clear what you’re talking about.
---
### Author:  [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/19 "2021-02-20T20:20:36Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#):
>
> You mean the whatchamacallit?
+1
> [@lobotomyboy63](#):
>
> Thingamabobs
+1
Though we spell it thingamebobs
---
### Author:  [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345/20 "2021-02-20T21:24:45Z")
If necessary, you can say, with firm emphasis, “you know, _ **THAT** _ thing.”
That always helps.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-words-for-thingies/933345.md?page=2)