Whatchamacallit - Wiktionary

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• 1 English Toggle English subsection
  • 1.1 Alternative forms
  • 1.2 Etymology
  • 1.3 Pronunciation
  • 1.4 Noun
    • 1.4.1 Related terms
    • 1.4.2 Synonyms
    • 1.4.3 Translations
  • 1.5 Further reading

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English

[edit] WOTD – 9 November 2017

Alternative forms

[edit]

• what-you-may-call-it

Etymology

[edit]

Univerbation and contraction of what you may call it. United States, 20th century (recorded in 1921).

Pronunciation

[edit]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈwɒtʃəməˌkɔːlɪt/
• (General American) IPA(key): /ˈwʌt͡ʃəməˌkɔlɪt/, /ˈwʌt͡ʃməˌkɑlɪt/
• (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈwɔtʃəməˌkɔːɫət/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: what‧cha‧ma‧call‧it

Noun

[edit]

whatchamacallit (plural whatchamacallits or whatchamacallem or whatchamacall'em)

1. (colloquial) A metasyntactic term used for any object whose actual name the speaker does not know or cannot remember; a doodad, gizmo, thingamajig, thingy.
   • 1921, Johnny Gruelle, Orphant Annie Story Book, Volume 7, page 69:The Thingamajig and the Wachamacallit.
   • 1969, J[ames] P[inckney] Miller, stage adaptation by F. Andrew Leslie, The People Next Door, New York, N.Y.: Dramatists Play Service, →OCLC, act II, page 42:You’re—you must be the whatchamacallit, huh? The peer.
   • 1972, Carolyn Lane, Child of Air: A One Act Play, Denver, Colo.: Pioneer Drama Service, →OCLC, page 13:JESSICA: How many times do I have to say it? We were not stealing, Officer. We were just— / MONAHAN: I know. Performing some kind of whatchamacallit deed. Anyhow, they go to the clink, that's what happens to people who filch city property.
   • 1996, Corbett Mack, as told by Michael Hittman, “Boyhood (1892–1905)”, in Corbett Mack: The Life of a Northern Paiute (Studies in the Anthropology of North American Indians), Lincoln, Neb.; London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 60:I'm a boy, so when I'm sick, they can call in poohaghooma, Indian doctor. But not Tom Mitchell! No, sir! [We] won't have Tom Mitchell to doctor me! 'Cause whatchamacallit, he always used to doctor me …
   • 1998, David Alan Black, “There’s No Place Like Rome: The Parts of Speech and Their Function”, in It’s still Greek to Me: An Easy-to-understand Guide to Intermediate Greek, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, →ISBN, page 19:"Think we ought to check this whatchamacallit?" / "No, that doodad over there seems to be the problem."
   • 2001 [1992], Russell Heng, Lest the Demons Get to Me, revised version January 2001, via National Library Board Singapore, Act 1, page 4:You know, he looked at everybody and everything but not me as if just by letting his eyes rest on me for a moment would let out that he and I are having a whatchamacalit.
   • 2014 October, Don Pendleton, chapter 15, in Domination Bid (Don Pendleton’s Stony Man: America’s Ultra-covert Intelligence Agency; Gold Eagle Book), Don Mills, Ont.: Worldwide Library, →ISBN, page 180:As you've said, the safety of the American people is our first priority. We have orders that if these EMP whatchamacallits can't be secured then they must be destroyed.

Related terms

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• whatchamacallher
• whatchamacallhim

Synonyms

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• See Thesaurus:thingy

Translations

[edit] any object the actual name of which the speaker does not know or cannot remember

Aramaic: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܗܢܐ (hina) Bulgarian: такова (takova) Catalan: daixonses (ca) m Chinese: Cantonese: 咩嘢 (me1 je5), 乜東東 / 乜东东 (mat1 dung1 dung1), 某 (mau5), 嗰 (yue) (go2) Mandarin: 那个那个, 那个东西, 東東 / 东东 (zh) (dōngdōng) (Taiwan, slang) Czech: tentononc (cs) m Danish: dingenot c, dimsedut c, dippedut c, himstergins, himstregims c Dutch: dinges (nl) m or n Esperanto: umo (eo), aĵaĵo sg Finnish: hilavitkutin (fi) French: bidule (fr) m, truc (fr) m, trucmuche (fr) m, machin (fr) m, machin-chose (fr) m, schmilblick (fr) m Galician: cousa (gl) f, couso (gl), aquel (gl) Georgian: რა ჰქვია (ra hkvia) German: Dingsbums (de) n, Dingsda (de), Krimskrams (de) m Greek: πώς το λένε (pós to léne) Ancient Greek: σκινδαψός m (skindapsós) Hebrew: מַה שְּׁמוֹ (he) m (ma shmo) Hungarian: izé (hu), hogyishívják (hu), hogyhívják, bizbasz (vulgar), szirszar (hu) (vulgar) Icelandic: dæmi (is) n, fídus Italian: coso (it) m, vattelapesca f Japanese: 何とか (ja) (なんとか, nantoka), 何々 (naninani) Korean: 거시기 (geosigi), 뭐시기 (mwosigi) Navajo: daadaolyéhé Neapolitan: chilleto Polish: wihajster (pl) m, ustrojstwo (pl) n, śmeges m, tenteges m, dzyndzel (pl) m, dynks (pl) m, pierdzielnik m, gżdynks m, pipsztyk (pl) m Portuguese: coisa (pt) f, negócio (pt) m, treco (pt) m, troço (pt) m, bagulho (pt) m (Brazil), parada (pt) f (Rio, Carioca), bagaça (pt) f (Brazil), paradinha f (Rio, Carioca) Russian: ка́к его́ (там) m or n (kák jevó (tam)), ка́к её (там) f (kák jejó (tam)), ка́к их (там) pl (kák ix (tam)), шту́ка (ru) f (štúka), бандура (ru) f (bandura) Serbo-Croatian: kakosezove f Sicilian: socchegghiadè, socchegghiarè, socchegghiè Slovak: oné Spanish: chisme (es) m, chunche (es) m (Costa Rica, Mexico), chingadera (es) (vulgar, Mexico), coso (es) m (River Plate region, Costa Rica), vaina (es) f (Central America, Caribbean, Colombia) Swedish: mojäng (sv) c, grunka (sv) c, mackapär (sv) c Tagalog: yung ano Turkish: zımbırtı (tr), zamazingo (tr) Ukrainian: я́к його́ (там) m or n (ják johó (tam)), я́к її́ (там) f (ják jijí (tam)), я́к їх (там) pl (ják jix (tam)) Welsh: pethma m (North), bechingalw m (South) Zulu: ilokhuzane class 5

Further reading

[edit]

• whatchamacallit (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=whatchamacallit&oldid=89458419" Categories:

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