A “thingy” has been defined as a word that one uses to replace the word they either don’t know or may have forgotten at the moment and is similar to a “do-hickey,” a “whatchamacallit” or a “thingamajig.” To illustrate one might say, “you know that thingy in math that tells you to divide this number by that number?” because they don’t know that the ÷ symbol is an obelus. Or, perhaps when they encounter the # symbol in the United States they might call it a number sign or a tic-tac-toe game, or if it used in music, a sharp, or in twitter, a hashtag or hash-sign but it is really an octothorpe.
Not only is there a word for most things but some are quite weird, for example one might say, “Nudiustertian, the blatherskite told a bindlestiff about his bobsy-die and that he had to either quomodocunquiz or maybe impignorate, but since he had kakorrhaphiophobia he might have to just absquatulate.” Say what??
In other words: The day before yesterday (nudiustertian) the windy, nonsense talker (blatherskite) told a tramp (bindlestiff) about his trouble (bobsy-die) and that he had to either make money anyway he could (quomodocunquiz) or maybe pawn or mortgage something (impignorate), but that he had a fear of failing (kakorrhaphiophobia) so he might have to just leave abruptly (absquatulate).
Or one might say, “A deedy young man with emacity had been shopping for a while when he dropped one of his adsiticious, pantagruelian packages and injured both his minmus and hallux. Later, while in the food court where he was xertzing, an argute, criminatory man vicinal to him was eying all the packages, but fortunately his friend came by and helped him get his scrippage to his car so there was an eucastrophe.
In other words: An industrious (deedy) young man with a fondness for buying things (emacity) had been shopping for a while when he dropped one of his additional (adsiticious), huge (pantagruelian) packages and injured both his little toe (minmus) and big toe (hallux). While in the food court where he was gulping down his food (xertzing), a shrewd (argute), threatening (criminatory) man adjacent (vicinal) to him was eying all his packages, but fortunately his friend came by and helped him get his personal belongings (scrippage) to his car so there was a happy ending (eucastrophe) to the story. NOTE: had the young man’s fondness for buying things actually been an uncontrollable desire to buy things it would have been an oniomania.
You know when you really don’t have a stuffed up or runny nose, yet you can feel that little drop just at the tip of your nose? Well there is a word for that too and it is called a meldrop, and there is even a word for that little squiggle of toothpaste that you squeeze onto your toothbrush – it is called a nerdle. If you happen to have a little bit of something leftover that is called a tittynope!
Many of the words used above may be obscure to most people, however, they do exist and do have that indicated meaning. The American English language began as an off shoot of that of the British and later incorporated vocabulary from the Scots and Irish as they emigrated to the United States. Since those early times the vocabulary of our language, just like America itself, has become a melting pot as it incorporates words from a multitude of other languages. For example, if you consider yourself to be an entrepreneur or order croissants you are speaking French, or if you sent your children to kindergarten or say Gesundheit when someone sneezes, you are speaking German. No matter where it comes from or how outlandish it may seem, just remember there is probably another word for most everything and are we not fortunate that we no longer have to worry about either pronouncing or spelling those other thingys!
