I was having a conversation with someone recently who couldn’t remember the name of an object so he called it a “doodad”. Trying to be funny, I replied, “Oh, you mean the little “doohickey”!
Oh, I know it could have possibly been a whatchamacallit, thingamabob, or even a dojigger but if one thinks it’s a doodad, then that surely must be what it is.
It is interesting that there are so many such made up words in the English language. We all use them from time to time when we don’t know, or can’t think of, the word that we want to use, so we quickly come up with a temporary substitute. We simply make up our own synonym at least until we can determine the real name of the object.
There actually is a name for these words that we create. They are called placeholders, or synecdoche (si-NEK-duh-kee), which are linguistic metaphors that are used in place of a word. In other words, synecdoche is merely a term for a thingydo!
We hear these words often and I use them a lot. For instance, today I was canning salsa and I needed that little deelie that lifts the jars out of the water. Well, I finally found it in the drawer beside that aluminum bowl-shaped thingy that goes down inside of the jar so you won’t spill the contents all over the counter. I lost that little object once and was going to buy another one but that’s difficult to do if you don’t know what the object is called. I “googled” it on the internet but google didn’t seem to know what a silver bowl-shaped thingy was but I was not going to be dissuaded, I kept trying different names and the item finally came up when I goggled “aluminum canning funnel thingamajig”. Yes, it really did!
It also seems like there are a lot of items that just don’t have a name that is easy to remember. Take, for instance, those pistol-shaped gizmos that you use to light your barbecue grill; what else can you call them besides “pistol-shaped fire starter gizmos”?
There are lots of other words like these that we use such as: whatnot, stuff, wotsit, gadget, gee-gaw, and widget and I am sure there are many more.
We also use these placeholder words for people. We talk about “Tom, Dick, and Harry”, whom we have never even met and we try to keep up with the Joneses when we don’t know them either. Then there is the mysterious John and Jane Doe who must surely be friends with John Smith. Sometimes we hear about Joe Shmoe or that old so and so, whoever he is. Some of these folks may even live in Anytown, USA or Timbuktu. There are also names of places that can be insulting or at least not so flattering such as Hickville, Podunk, or Boondocks. Someone once told me that in New Zealand they use a derogatory term much like this in saying someone is from Waikikamukau, (Why kick a moo-cow’)
We often use placeholders in numbers and especially large numbers and we exagerate by saying:
“Umpteen, oodles, scads, gazillion, squillian, buckets, and loads.
One of my favorite numbers comes from Bilbo Baggins, a character in The Lord of the Rings who celebrated his eleventy-first birthday. (One hundred eleven) I wonder if he celebrated in Octember, or perhaps his birthday party was on February 31st at dark o’clock.
At any rate, he probably got scads of doodads and thingamajigs for his birthday.
An apologetic statesmen of a compromising kind,
Such as--What d'ye call him--Thing'em-bob,
And likewise--Never-mind,…
What's-his-name, and also You-know-who--
The task of filling up the blanks I'd rather leave to you.
(From Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado)
By
Pamela Perry Blaine
© Septober 7, 2007
(Just for fun: See how many placeholders, or synecdoche words you can find in the above writing.)
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`·-»Pam
"Security is not the absence of danger,
but the presence of God"
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