In the 18th century, the Swedish government made coffee and its paraphernalia (including cups and dishes) illegal for its supposed ties to rebellious sentiment.
WHATCHAMACALLIT
doodad, doohickey, doojigger, gimmick, gizmo, gismo, gubbins, thingamabob, thingumabob, thingmabob, thingamajig, thingumajig, thingmajig, thingummy, whatchamacallit, whatchamacallum, whatsis, widget
(noun) something unspecified whose name is either forgotten or not known; “she eased the ball-shaped doodad back into its socket”; “there may be some great new gizmo around the corner that you will want to use”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
A shortened version of “what you may call it” or “what you might call it”. United States, 20th century (recorded in 1921).
Noun
whatchamacallit (plural whatchamacallits)
(slang) A metasyntactic term used for any object whose actual name the speaker does not know or cannot remember; a doodad, gizmo, thingamajig, thingy.
Synonyms
• See thingy
Source: Wiktionary
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
4 April 2025
GUILLOTINE
(verb) kill by cutting the head off with a guillotine; “The French guillotined many Vietnamese while they occupied the country”
Coffee Trivia
