doohickey
a small object whose name you can't remember
TRANSLATION
doohickey = Dingsbums doohickey = etwas, dessen Namen der sprechenden Person gerade nicht einfällt oder dessen Namen die sprechende Person nicht kennt --- GOOGLE INDEX doohickey: approximately 800,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The dream of most Brazilians isn't to build a successful company, brand or invent a better DOOHICKEY.
(The Economist)
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Some motels provide a DOOHICKEY attached to the wall that will supposedly heat a cup of water.
(New York Times)
(The Economist)
---
Some motels provide a DOOHICKEY attached to the wall that will supposedly heat a cup of water.
(New York Times)
Did you
know?
doohickey
noun, slang
- any small device or object whose name you cannot remember or do not know
(Cambridge Dictionary)
---
Although the brain is a marvellous organ, there are always situations in which we just can't come up with a word for something that we are talking about. Or maybe there isn't a word for it. For the most part though, either the sought-after word is obscure or we have simply had no occasion to use it.
The brain is flexible however; so flexible that in those moments where we draw a blank (forget), we simply create a word - like doohickey for instance. The real mystery is not how the brain is able to perform such a brilliant feat, but where the new term stems from.
For some of these words, the origin is fairly obvious. For instance, we have a group of terms that start with "thing," such as thingamajig and thingamamob (Give me that thingamajig over there would you?). And then there are words like "whatchamacallit," which is an onomatopoeic term for "what do you call it?" (Would you turn on that whatchamacallit on the wall?)
As for doohickey, it's not clear how this word developed. We only know that it began to appear in the U.S. in the 1920s and was likely a naval expression. According to the Oxford Dictionary, doohickey might be a blend of doodad (another word for an object whose name we can't remember) and hickey, a reddish love spot on the skin, usually the neck.
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SYNONYMS
contraption, doodad, gizmo, object, thing, thingamajig, thingamabob, whatchamacallit, widget
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"To activate the system just press the red button on that doohickey."
noun, slang
- any small device or object whose name you cannot remember or do not know
(Cambridge Dictionary)
---
Although the brain is a marvellous organ, there are always situations in which we just can't come up with a word for something that we are talking about. Or maybe there isn't a word for it. For the most part though, either the sought-after word is obscure or we have simply had no occasion to use it.
The brain is flexible however; so flexible that in those moments where we draw a blank (forget), we simply create a word - like doohickey for instance. The real mystery is not how the brain is able to perform such a brilliant feat, but where the new term stems from.
For some of these words, the origin is fairly obvious. For instance, we have a group of terms that start with "thing," such as thingamajig and thingamamob (Give me that thingamajig over there would you?). And then there are words like "whatchamacallit," which is an onomatopoeic term for "what do you call it?" (Would you turn on that whatchamacallit on the wall?)
As for doohickey, it's not clear how this word developed. We only know that it began to appear in the U.S. in the 1920s and was likely a naval expression. According to the Oxford Dictionary, doohickey might be a blend of doodad (another word for an object whose name we can't remember) and hickey, a reddish love spot on the skin, usually the neck.
---
SYNONYMS
contraption, doodad, gizmo, object, thing, thingamajig, thingamabob, whatchamacallit, widget
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"To activate the system just press the red button on that doohickey."
