Thingamabobs and Whatchamacallits

When the Fairy Godmother casts her spell in Disney's Cinderella (1950), she sings:

It will do magic,
Believe it or not,
Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.
Now "Salagadoola" means
"A-Menchika-boola-roo,"
But the thingamabob
That does the job
Is "Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo."

Forget "Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo." Our magical word of the day is "thingamabob"--a Swiss Army knife of a word that means, well, just about anything we want it to mean. Not very helpfully, The American Heritage Dictionary defines "thingamabob" as (no joke) a "thingamajig."

Some call the "thingamabob" (or "thingamajig" or "whatchamacallit") a placeholder; others prefer the term tongue-tipper. Regardless of the label, it's a word used by speakers to signal that they don't know or can't remember a more precise word for the thingie--whatever it may be.

Some placeholders, such as "doodad" and "whatsit," are widely known. Others carry a more regional flavor: "gubbins" is favored by the British, "yoke" by the Irish. And some of the most peculiar tongue-tippers fall into the mysterious realm of family slang.

Here, for your delectation, is a list of placeholders that we've collected over the years:

• dealie
• deelybob
• dingus
• doodad
• doohickey
• doojigger
• gadget
• geegaw or gewgaw
• gismo or gizmo
• gubbins
• hoozywhat
• junk
• stuff
• thing
• thingamajig
• thingamambob
• thingie
• whatchamacallem
• whatchamacallit
• whatchamajigger
• whatsit
• whatsitsname
• whatnot
• whosis or whosit
• yoke

If you're familiar with a placeholder that's not on the list, please send along the whatchamajigger by clicking on the "comments" button below.

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