# thingy, whatchamacallit



## dihydrogen monoxide

What word do you use if you can't remember a certain word and what would be its meaning roughly?


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## avok

In Turkish it almost always "şey". To mean "şey"...."şey"...some "şey"..we always "şey" ..say..."şey"...ex: I want to "şey" your "şey ": I want to "..." your "..." when you can't remember the words. This can lead us to some sexual connotations though


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## irene.acler

In *Italian* there is a word "coso", and the correspondent verb, "cosare", which are quite used, especially in a colloquial register, to replace words that you don't remember.
Some examples:
_Mi sono dimenticata di prendere il coso: I forgot to take xxx_
_Devo cosare prima di andare al lavoro: I have to xxx before going to work._


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## franz rod

Cosare? mai sentito oltre a sembrare decisamente brutto.
E a dire il vero non dico neppure coso, ma roba.


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## Kangy

In Spanish (at least in Argentina) we use *cosa* ('thing') as a placeholder when we can't come up with the actual noun. However, we also very often use *coso* which, till this moment, I thought to be just an invented masculine/neuter-gender word derived from *cosa* (which is feminine), but looking at the Italian posts, I've realised that it must be one of the many borrowings Argentinian Spanish made from Italian during the early 1900's.

_No encuentro la cosa esa_ = I can't find that thing
_Estos cositos me gustan_ = I like these thingies

We don't have a placeholding verb that I know of, though.


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## ronanpoirier

Similar to Italian and Spanish we say "coisa" (thing), "negócio", "troço", "bagulho", "baragudeco", "treco", just to name a few. We also created a verb "coisar" when we can't remember the verb.

Vou lá coisar o coisa. (I'll go there "to thing" the "thing")

Another remark is that in this case, and only in this case, "coisa" is masculine and not feminine as the original word.


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## jazyk

> Another remark is that in this case, and only in this case, "coisa" is masculine and not feminine as the original word.


Maybe in your region, but in mine it's always a coisa.


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## Mjolnir

We generally use דבר (_davar_, a thing) or משהו (_mashehu_, something) in Hebrew.


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## sokol

As in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese in German it is also the word for 'thing', that is 'Dings':

Gestern war ich beim Dings = Yesterday I went to what's-his-name.

Interestingly, no one mentioned English so far. As far as I know you could use this 'what's-his/her-name'-construction for people and 'thingy' for things (and probably animals), right? Probably a native speaker could elaborate.


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## mgwls

In addition to what my compatriot has said, when what we don't remember is the name of a person, we pull through by referring to the person as "este hombre (chico, tipo)" (this man) if it's male or "esta mujer (chica)" (this woman) if it's female. I have the impression this also is very common in many languages.
As for a placeholder for verbs, I can't think of any we'd use. I believe we use synonyms (maybe sometimes quite far-fetched) if we can't remember a verb.


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## federicoft

franz rod said:


> Cosare? mai sentito oltre a sembrare decisamente brutto.
> E a dire il vero non dico neppure coso, ma roba.



It does exist and it is very common actually (although colloquial). It is so common you most probably heard it all the time, without realizing it.

*cosare*
_v. tr_. e _intr_. [_io còso ecc_. ; aus. dell'intr. _avere_ o _essere_] (_fam_.) verbo di significato assolutamente generico, per indicare qualsiasi azione che non si sappia o non si voglia definire con precisione; il suo valore è precisato dal contesto: _cosa stai cosando?_, facendo, dicendo, pensando o altro.
(Garzanti)

_Coso_ is used with people you don't remember the name as well.
With objects, you can say also _affare, arnese _(tool)_, roba _(thing) etc.


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## franz rod

Ti posso assicurare che non lo ho mai sentito usare anche perchè può essere più facilmente sostituito da verbi come fare che già di per sé è un verbo che può essere usato nei più diversi contesti.


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## kusurija

In Czech we often use demonstratives (pronouns) _ten_, _ta_, _to_, _tento_, ..., ... and sometimes comic _tentononc_.
(ten - m.; ta -f.; to . neutr. it changes grammatically by case: ten(NOM.), toho(GEN.), tomu(DAT.) ..., ...)
E.g. Yesterday I went to what's-its-name. Včera jsem šel do toho... [tohó]. Cf. here is intonation *very *important! Because "Včera jsem šel do toho [toho]." means I packed it up; (packed it in) (resolutely) yesterday/I (resolutely) begun a great affair yesterday. 

In Lithuanian: 
Kaip-ten-jis (How-there-it - word-to-word) or similary as in Czech using demonstratives: tas (ta-f.), anas, tentas, tatas...
...maybe much more, but this minute I don't remember...


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## jmx

dihydrogen monoxide said:


> What word do you use if you can't remember a certain word and what would be its meaning roughly?


I think one or more examples would help us know exactly what you are looking for.


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## Juri

My very old aunt has memory problems and said me few days ago:"Coso, cosa coso". 
First "coso" was my name, cosa= make, coso= something.


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## sound shift

"Whatsit", "Thingamibob".


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## Encolpius

in Hungarian = *izé*


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## Encolpius

in *Slovak*: oný, oná, oné, onô


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
«Πες το» ('Pes to), imperative mood of the verb «Λέγω» ('leɣo)-->"to say, speak"
lit. "say it"
or
«αυτό» (af'to), third-person singular, neuter, personal pronoun
lit. "it"


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## Juri

Per FRANC ROD: Non e' assolutamente uno scherzo la faccenda della mia anziana zia di ROMA, che usava spessissimo il verbo "cosare", e poiche'  vivevamo a 700 km di distanza, e non era quindi   avvezza al mio nome,  mi chiamava spesso "Coso" nei pochi giorni della mia presenza all'Anno santo.


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## Favara

In Catalan (atleast in the southernmost varieties) we use the construction _d'això _(lit. "of that thing", roughly meaning "that thing over there" or "one of those things").
We also use _així/aixins/aixina_ ("like this") for adjectives.
_Pots dur-me un d'això_ _aixina_? > "Can you bring me that thing over there, the one that's like this?"


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## Csaba

Icelanders often say 'hérna...' which means 'here' but it doesn't mean anything, just fills up time before you remember or find a good way to phrase what you're trying to say.


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## Hakro

I think that in everyday language Finns usually say _tämä_ (this) or _siis tämä_ (so this). But there are many varieties depending on the context.

If we are speaking about a technical component on machinery and we forget the correct term, it's quite common to use the word _hilavitkutin_ that has no real meaning. A literal translation could be "delay grid" but there is no such thing.


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## franz rod

> Per FRANC ROD: Non e' assolutamente uno scherzo la faccenda della mia anziana zia di ROMA, che usava spessissimo il verbo "cosare", e poiche' vivevamo a 700 km di distanza, e non era quindi avvezza al mio nome, mi chiamava spesso "Coso" nei pochi giorni della mia presenza all'Anno santo.



Ma guarda difatti cosa c'è scritto sul dizionario vicino a cosare? Fam. cioè familiare che spesso comporta una diffusione regionale.
Chiamare una persona "coso" è decisamente strambo oltre che poco gentile.


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## Juri

Visti i suoi venerandi 98, non me ne sono mai offeso.


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## rusita preciosa

In Russian we say:
*это* /eto/ (literally, "this" in neuter gender)
*штука* /shtuka/ - thingy, thing
*как его* /kak yego/ - could be loosely translated as "what is it" (as in the beginning of "what is it called?")

In French I think is *machin *- thingy


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## bibax

In Czech we say: *basmeg* (or *bazmek* - masc. noun) = thingy

It is a loanword from Hungarian, where it means "f**k it!" (2nd pers. sing. imperative).

Note that in Czech it is not a vulgar word (I believe) as many Czechs don't know the original Hungarian meaning.


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## galaxy man

bibax said:


> It is a loanword from Hungarian [...] it is not a vulgar word (I believe) as many Czechs don't know the original Hungarian meaning.



I really hoped that this was a joke, but apparently not; what a pity :-((

By the way, "thingy" has a perfectly sweet Hungarian alter ego: *bigyó*. Here "gy" is simply a very soft "d", *not* similar to rhe ending of "thingy".


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## binette

en français, on dit
un truc, une chose, un machin


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## ElFrikiChino

Where I live, we (at least I and some friends of mine from another town) use "lavoro" (job) when we can't remember the name of something.



franz rod said:


> Ma guarda difatti cosa c'è scritto sul dizionario vicino a cosare? Fam. cioè familiare che spesso comporta una diffusione regionale.
> Chiamare una persona "coso" è decisamente strambo oltre che poco gentile.



Sono d'accordo che sia poco gentile, ma ci si fa il callo. Qui molta gente sostituisce nomi di persone che sfuggono con "Coso". Mi hanno chiamato così milioni di volte. E GIURO che mio zio (di Bologna) spesso si esibisce in frasi tipo: stamattina ho visto Coso, siamo andati in capannone ma mi ero dimenticato di cosare il coso, e quindi abbiamo dovuto cosare diversamente


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## binette

zut, j'avais oublié, on dit aussi *un bidule*


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## felicity09

In AE you might hear 'whatchamacallit"


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## effeundici

franz rod said:


> Cosare? mai sentito oltre a sembrare decisamente brutto.
> E a dire il vero non dico neppure coso, ma roba.


 
It's very used in Tuscany as well. My uncle used to say sentences like:

L'hai cosato il coso?
Did you [_word meaning nothing and everything]_ the [_word meaning nothing and everything]?_

Of course the answer was : 

Cosa??!?
What??!?


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## franz rod

> Sono d'accordo che sia poco gentile, ma ci si fa il callo. Qui molta gente sostituisce nomi di persone che sfuggono con "Coso"





> It's very used in Tuscany as well. My uncle used to say sentences like:



Mi sembra che l'uso di coso ed ancora di più cosare sia più o meno diffuso a seconda delle regioni. Dalle mie parti (nord-est), le rarissime volte che ho sentito usare coso è per indicare quasi esclusivamente l'organo genitale maschile...


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## wildan1

felicity09 said:


> In AE you might hear 'whatchamacallit"


 
Or _whatsit_
_thingy_
_thingamabob_
_whosiwhatsit_
_doohicky_ (for a thing--southern AE)

For a person whose name you forget:
_what's-his-name/what's-her-name_
_what's-his-face/what's-her-face_


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## Ben Jamin

sokol said:


> As in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese in German it is also the word for 'thing', that is 'Dings':
> 
> Gestern war ich beim Dings = Yesterday I went to what's-his-name.
> 
> Interestingly, no one mentioned English so far. As far as I know you could use this 'what's-his/her-name'-construction for people and 'thingy' for things (and probably animals), right? Probably a native speaker could elaborate.


 In Poland people used to say "dings" or "wichajster" (wie heisst der ..). Maybe only old people use it now.


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## saharuna

Hello All,
In Japanese, あれ、are. それ、sore. And sometimes,often,あれあれ、areare.それそれ、soresore.


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## Dymn

Favara said:


> In Catalan (atleast in the southernmost varieties) we use the construction _d'això _(lit. "of that thing", roughly meaning "that thing over there" or "one of those things").


At least in Catalonia I find the form _daixonses/daixonsis_ to be more common, which is a derivation from _d'això_.


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## Yendred

rusita preciosa said:


> In French I think is *machin *- thingy



Yes: _le machin_, _le truc_, or _le bidule _(the latter being kind of outdated)

_machin _is forged on _machine _(same meaning as in English)
_truc _means _trick/ruse_ (of a magician or just a clever idea)
_bidule _comes from Picard (French dialect of Northern France) _bidoule, _meaning _mud _and evoking something messy

The original meanings are lost though, and all three terms (in the context of this thread) mean _thingy_.


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## Welsh_Sion

Don't you also have 'un schmilblick' in French, yendred? (Trying to recall my Coluche, here …)

As for Welsh:

bewytti'ngalw (< beth + wyt + ti + yn + galw) = (a) what do you (informal) call it?

peth'ma ( peth + yma) = (the) thing here.


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## Yendred

Welsh_Sion said:


> Don't you also have 'un schmilblick' in French, yendred? (Trying to recall my Coluche, here …)



Yes, _schmilblick _is a word invented by the French humorist Pierre Dac in the 50's. According to him, the _schmilblick _is an object which is totally useless (Pierre Dac was sort of in the legacy of the Surrealist and Dadaist movements).

But since the 60's, the word _schmilblick _is undoubtedly associated with the eponymous TV game, which consisted of guessing the name of an object, and since the 70's, as you said, undoubtedly associated with the parody of the said TV game made by Coluche.

That's why this term is less commonly used than _machin, truc _or _bidule_, unless you want to be willfully offbeat.


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## symposium

Well, I suppose that in Italy, in this more so than in any other instance, we usually resort to local languages and dialects. In Venetian, and specifically where I live, we say: angagno, tàtara, bàgolo.


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## TheCrociato91

Are we doing dialects, too? If so, we say "laùr" (among other things) in the area where I'm from.


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## Olaszinhok

I’d probably use_ aggeggio _in my Italian.


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## sound shift

"Where's the *doofer* that you fixed the chair with?"


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## Yendred

sound shift said:


> "Where's the *doofer* that you fixed the chair with?"



I didn't know that one thanks. According to the Wiktionary, it comes from “_do for_”, as in “_it will do for that job_”.


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## merquiades

wildan1 said:


> Or _whatsit
> thingy
> thingamabob
> whosiwhatsit
> doohicky_ (for a thing--southern AE)
> 
> For a person whose name you forget:
> _what's-his-name/what's-her-name
> what's-his-face/what's-her-face_


Or the one I use:   Thingamajig


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## Red Arrow

Dutch: *dinges*

If one forgot a woman's name, he might say *dingske* (little thing) in Flanders. Not sure if it's politically correct.

There is also the verb *dingesen*. One of my most frequently used verbs  The S can be voiced.

The book "Rita and Whatsit" is translated as "Rita en Dinges".


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