Posted on 11/02/2007 12:55:00 PM PDT by Hotdog
I'm an engineer and yes...I use a lot of duct tape but after 35 years of marriage my wife still translates items she can't put a name to as a "thingy". I've let this pass with a smile but have wondered how many people actually use this word (if it is a word) during everyday conversation...
Two thingies connected with a doodad, using a whatsit makes a widget, provided you hang it from a whatchamacallit...but only when you find a correctly shaped tuit.
But how can you be sure they're from Missouri?
My wife grew up in England. I quickly learned that any object she could not identify was a “thingy”. Naturally I’ve started saying it too.
One also encounters existential difficulties when it becomes apparent that not only is it ambiguous which referent is called, not only is it questionable whether the referent does exist, but whether it is even possible for the referent to exist. Clearly in this case we have a clear reference in "Aunt Martha's slug chowder" where not only does one not have an Aunt Martha, but the referent "slug chowder" is perfectly disgusting.
In fact, the very meaning of existence itself is called into question here. When we consider "thingy" we come face to face with the Void, the bleak, shapeless aftermath of a fruitless and futile human condition, the darkness and chaos of empty space where the soul is supposed to be. It is less than the dust left from a universe returned to a zero-energy state. It is final abnegation of the very life of the universe.
Or not.
You got me there!!!
(and I'm affraid to even "Goggle" it)
8^)
I use such terms myself when speaking to duct tape engineers because I don’t wish to confuse them. Perhaps your wife is trying to avoid embarrassing you.
I use it as shorthand for ‘thingumabob” and “thingamajig” which are in the dictionary.
Bet you didn’t expect this many replies, didja?
I think it is a lower end version of a doomaflotch.
Don’t know that one, but the So-Cal (Baja Norte-Norte)Mexicans I used work with seemed to favor ‘chingaso’ as a greeting: “Hey, Chingasso, where’s the six pack you owe me?”
A thingy is something that might be part of a car. It can also be a part of a sink or a computer or a doorbell or a shoe or... hey! Look around! Everything has a thingy or two! Who knew there were so many? You know, sometimes I even put thingies in my hair! Yeah, it’s blonde, how did you know?
I’m partial to thingumbob, doohicky, whoozits, whatzamabob, and the doodlehopper.
It’s a doo-dah. (Who doesn’t know that?)
“I use such terms myself when speaking to duct tape engineers because I don’t wish to confuse them. Perhaps your wife is trying to avoid embarrassing you.”
Duct tape is real sticky and holds thingys in place when they don’t behave like we made them....so my wife tells me...
The major difference between a thingy that might go wrong and a thingy that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thingy that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.
my apologies to the late Mr. Douglas Adams
8^)
That is shameful, since the consequences could be disastrous.
It’s that one thing.
Target builder or weapon builder?
“thingy” ping lol
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