1. Thing, my version of thingie
2. Doohicky.
Whatchamacallit is a word I use when I know I know the word for the, ahem, object, but I just can't think of it this minute.
I hate to say this, but sometimes we in the landscape construction field use the word 'chinga' for the unnamed object. Short, I believe, for chingadera.
As to a plant disease that neither my business partner
nor I can identify - we call it 'lemon decline', our general term for a plant troubles. Not that you asked.
Yes, fraid so. It existed as a word used in construction in L.A. before I got there...
"Chinga" is the beginning of a Very Bad Phrase in Spanish... In English I believe it would be spelled "F"...
and I have no doubt that Mexican construction workers use it all the time.
I learned it from my Spanish speaking Japanese American boss. He wasn't a guy who used swear words/expletives generally. The word was used as a replacement in Hand me that Column Base, or What is that ...... on top of the vent? Come to think of it, much in construction can be thought of as having a phallic connotation, but within our office 'chinga' was used as word replacement rather like dealie, whatsit, or thingie. No, we didn't use it all that often, since we tended to know the names of the objects we work with, but sometimes we did it out of laziness, instead of saying, for example, Simpson Strong Tie Connector.
Um, sorry, I didn't mean to skew the discussion away from Whatchamacallits....
Piffka, According to Webster's whatsit is spelled with an s. Yes, I actually looked up the terms I used. I'm incorrigible. Dealiwhopper? New to me.
Roger, Gizzerblinker. I will make a mental note. Gizzerblinker--an electronic doohickey. Of course, to me all electronic stuff falls in the gizzerblinker/doohickey category.
Walter, Thanks. Now I can be inarticulate in two languages. Dingsbums and Dingens.
Vivien, Doflip? A person. Live and loin. Whatnot. I usually use whatnot as a kind of etc. This and that and whatnot.
PeterDuce, Thanks for the aglet info. This word meanders in and out of my head.
Jes, Doodad? I think of doodad as a specific kind of thingie. Like a dingle-dangle on a necklace. That doodad. When I'm in the midst of a senior moment, familiar objects become whatchamacallits. Pointing to the spatula I say, "Gimme the whatchamacallit, please."
mrs. hamburger has replaced all of these fine words with 'you know'.
Can you go get the you know?
Errrr, where is it?
Downstairs. In the you know.
I don't.
Your father does.
and he does. I guess that's one of the upsides of 47 years of marriage. You really know what 'you know' means.
In my house, who-ha or doo-dad pretty much covers it all.
I was once told in all seriousness by a birder that we just saw an LBB.
"Really?" sez I. "What is that?"
It means Little Brown Bird...
--- Hey, if Osso can talk about Lemon Decline and Chinga-stuff....
Beth -- Your mom at least finishes her sentences. My kids swear I say this sort of thing at home:
"Can you get the uh...?"
"It's in the uh...."
"Your dad, uh...."
Osso, Now we have specialized nonspecificity. Lemon decline. I like it.
ehbeth, Although I'm usually inclined to dislike "you knows," the situation you describe sounds amazingly like communication. As long as one really knows what "you know" means, then in fact "you know" applies. You know?
eoe, Who-ha? Good one.
Piffka, "Uh" is pithy. If it works, why not use it?
Well, if you can have FLK's, you can have LBB's!
Deb, Dare I ask? What's an FLK?
Funny Looking Kid - TRUE! 'Tis actually used - when something genetic is clearly amiss, but nobody knows what the heck it is.
I just found that the placeholder in Creole of Mauritius is SOZ (, which is also short for our dear sozobe :wink: ).
(And Brasilian can -similar to us Germans- conjugate their [main] placeholder 'coisar' [might be, Craven already pointed that out - to lazy to scroll back].)
FLK is a funny-looking kid? How very disappointing. I thought it was something dirty.
Is FLG a funny-looking grown-up?
Walter, I'm confused. In the context of this thread, what's a placeholder?
I'm a fountain of questions. Don't know nuttin'. How did I manage to have gotten this old and have learned so little?
'Thingamajigs' etc. are called placeholder by the people of linguistlist.org
osso i love lemon decline. Sort of describes the way you feel when you are off colour with a bad cold too!
Yes, Vivien, me too, and I love LBB's too, quite sweet. I wonder if it could be adapted for other placeholder use, and pronounced 'lub'.
Thanks for the info, Walter. A placeholder. I'll try to remember.
Osso, the lemon decline thing could catch on. It really is a wonderful phrase that captures the essense of what you want to say.
