Wotchermacallit or Thingamabob in other languages?

Page 1 of 1 [ 14 posts ]

Joined: 7 Dec 2009
Age: 53
Gender: Female
Posts: 405
Location: UK

29 Mar 2010, 3:07 pm

There are so many wonderful variations for the word "thingy" in English, but I haven't encountered the equivalents in other languages. Are there any native speakers here who can list the equivalents, complete with translatory explanations?

SilentScream
Velociraptor

Joined: 7 Dec 2009
Age: 53
Gender: Female
Posts: 405
Location: UK

29 Mar 2010, 3:08 pm

Oops. Sorry. Wrong forum. How do I get this deleted/moved, please?

Ambivalence
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 8 Nov 2008
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,613
Location: Peterlee (for Industry)

29 Mar 2010, 4:48 pm

"Machin" and "machin-chouette" are French equivalents to "thingummy" and "whatshisname"; I don't know the etymology though.

_________________
No one has gone missing or died.

The year is still young.

iceb
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 26 Apr 2007
Age: 67
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,562
Location: London UK

29 Mar 2010, 6:32 pm

"Dinxbomps" was a favourite of my Aunt who is German.
I was told it means Thingimyjig.

_________________
Wisdom must be gathered, it cannot be given.

Inventor
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 15 Feb 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 6,014
Location: New Orleans

29 Mar 2010, 7:44 pm

Chengasa in American Spanish

LipstickKiller
Velociraptor

Joined: 1 Apr 2009
Age: 42
Gender: Female
Posts: 457

30 Mar 2010, 7:58 am

vahettere , actually vadheterdet, means what'sitcalled
mackapär "thingy" has the sound of something machine-like
grunka, actually a version of another slang word - grej- which also means thingy

all Swedish, off the top of my head

StuartN
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 20 Jan 2010
Age: 60
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,569

30 Mar 2010, 2:38 pm

SilentScream wrote:

In Greek:

μαραφετι, τετοιο, πραγματακι, κατι τισ (marafeti, tetio, pragmataki, kati tis)
machiney, suchlike, thingie, something

Jaydee
Snowy Owl

Joined: 4 Aug 2009
Age: 51
Gender: Female
Posts: 130

30 Mar 2010, 4:41 pm

Dings, dingsboms, tingest, greie.
All Norwegian words for "thingy" or "thingumajig".

Warsie
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 3 Apr 2008
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,542
Location: Chicago, IL, USA

30 Mar 2010, 5:33 pm

Ashtikushi or Ashitshuki - "thing with legs". It's Japanese and I know I butchered the spelling

_________________
I am a Star Wars Fan, Warsie here.
Masterdebating on chi-city's south side.......!

ValMikeSmith
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 18 May 2008
Age: 54
Gender: Male
Posts: 977
Location: Stranger in a strange land

30 Mar 2010, 9:47 pm

iceb wrote:

"Dinxbomps" was a favourite of my Aunt who is German.
I was told it means Thingimyjig.

Interesting. I tried to find this once and closest thing I found was
eigenartige-maschine. (For any of many unnamed inventions)
I guess babelfishing or looking up funny words for
widget/gadget/thing/artifact/toy/unit/module/device/blackbox might work,
or piece, part, component, hardware, fastener, chip, circuit, gear, clockwork.

Others I've heard are doodad, doohickey, doowockey, knick-knack, contraption.

Contraption means a complicated machine, and is short for
"contrived mousetrap invention" evoking the
"build a better mousetrap" idiom, and the Rube Goldberg
cartoon inventions which have too many parts, like the
board game MOUSETRAP.

auntblabby
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 113,748
Location: the island of defective toy santas

30 Mar 2010, 11:17 pm

LipstickKiller wrote:

grunka, actually a version of another slang word - grej- which also means thingy

"grunka" is very cute

for some reason it reminds me of the finnish word for howdy?/how are ya?/what's up?=kuinka voit. both words make me think of a hypothetical language made for sentient toys.

tenalpgnorw
Blue Jay

Joined: 14 May 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 94

30 Mar 2010, 11:26 pm

A word I use is "chotskies" which is yiddish I assume, so that makes it another language.

Ambivalence
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 8 Nov 2008
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,613
Location: Peterlee (for Industry)

31 Mar 2010, 2:33 am

ValMikeSmith wrote:

iceb wrote:

"Dinxbomps" was a favourite of my Aunt who is German.
I was told it means Thingimyjig.

Interesting. I tried to find this once and closest thing I found was
eigenartige-maschine.

I believe it's "dingsbums." Interesting that:

JayDee wrote:

Dings, dingsboms, tingest, greie.
All Norwegian words for "thingy" or "thingumajig".

So it looks like the Germanic languages share a common "thingy-bob" word; wonder what the bob/boms/bums bit came from?

(...and now I know the -ummy- bit is called an interfix. Something new every day.)

_________________
No one has gone missing or died.

The year is still young.

iceb
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 26 Apr 2007
Age: 67
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,562
Location: London UK

02 Apr 2010, 8:12 am

Ambivalence wrote:

ValMikeSmith wrote:

iceb wrote:

"Dinxbomps" was a favourite of my Aunt who is German.
I was told it means Thingimyjig.

Interesting. I tried to find this once and closest thing I found was
eigenartige-maschine.

I believe it's "dingsbums." Interesting that:

JayDee wrote:

Dings, dingsboms, tingest, greie.
All Norwegian words for "thingy" or "thingumajig".

I would not hold much with my spelling of the word I'm quite dyslexic and often put the wrong vowels in words, not that good putting the right constinents in either

_________________
Wisdom must be gathered, it cannot be given.

Page 1 of 1 [ 14 posts ]

Jump to:

Wotchermacallit or Thingamabob in other languages? Post Reply New Topic

Wotchermacallit or Thingamabob in other languages?