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I'm looking for a word that can substitute an object, whose name is unknown to the speaker.

I'm aware that there are words like "whatsamacallit", "thingamabob", etc., but they seem to be colloquial and I have never heard/seen any such word used in a formal setting. Is any of these common placeholder words appropriate in any situation?

For example, let's say I want to compliment a stranger, but I don't know the English word that represents the object I'm talking about: "You have a nice [placeholder]". What should the placeholder be?

EDIT: I got some feedback that I should provide more examples. So here are some more:

"My [placeholder] will come soon" (Waiting at the train station and not knowing the word "train")

"Where can I throw away my [placeholder] after I've finished eating the banana?" (Not knowing the word "peel")

Just to clarify, what I'm looking for is a universal substitution for any noun that can't be said for whatever valid reason (like not knowing or having forgotten how something is called) so that the sentence doesn't need to be altered in any way. Pretty much like a pronoun, except that you can't just strictly replace a noun with a pronoun. I have never heard anyone say something like "You have a nice it" or "I'm waiting for my it".

If what I'm asking for doesn't exist, I'm willing to accept that as an answer, preferably with some explanation/hypothesis why there isn't such a word.

Villem
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  • Pointing: "You have a nice one of those." (This assumes that you are not pointing at body parts.) – Greybeard Jul 19 '22 at 23:22
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    Before widget meant something in software, it was a word for undefined things manufactured. "Let's say you make 1,000 widgets a day ..." – Yosef Baskin Jul 19 '22 at 23:50
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    Anything wrong with "thing"? – DJClayworth Jul 20 '22 at 01:52
  • Can "thing" always be used as a single word placeholder or can that be ambiguous sometimes and one should say "this thing" or something like that instead? – Villem Jul 20 '22 at 05:01
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    @DJClayworth "thing" is sometimes used as a euphemism for penis.... Then again, almost any word can be used as a euphemism for penis -- guys are not very selective. – Barmar Jul 25 '22 at 21:02
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    There seems something impolite about not knowing what something is called. – Stuart F Aug 19 '22 at 10:42
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    @StuartF Excuse us mere mortals. Not everyone was born omniscient. – Villem Aug 20 '22 at 10:06
  • @StuartF Really? Why? – Robbie Goodwin Sep 07 '22 at 22:06
  • Can you show more examples, please? As it is, Isee 'whatsamacallit' or 'thingamabob' or anything like them as placeholders not in the general way you seem to mean, but specifically and only for 'I forget what it's called…'

    For me, 'You have a nice [placeholder]' could work in English only if you actually said 'You have a nice whatchamacallit…'. Some might allow a crude attempt at rude innuendo, as 'she has a nice (anything at all that comes in pairs)…' and I very much doubt that's what you meant…

     – Robbie Goodwin Sep 07 '22 at 22:20
  • @Robbie Goodwin edited the question – Villem Sep 08 '22 at 11:18
  • If you don't mind sounding a bit poncy and/or want to show of your knowledge of French, consider She has a nice je ne sais quoi**. Certainly upmarket enough for most formal contexts - just don't say it of The Queen if you're invited to a Buckingham Palace garden party (in case the dumber people in your audience think you're complimenting The Queen on her shapely butt! :) – FumbleFingers Sep 08 '22 at 11:28
  • @FumbleFingers Interesting. I didn't know you steal phrases from southern neighbours :). Is it a commonly known phrase among English speakers? – Villem Sep 08 '22 at 11:39
  • I can't find any written examples including the specific qualifier *nice, but there are plenty of written instances of "she has a je ne sais quoi" in Google Books (sometimes hyphenated or "scare-quoted" :). I think most reasonably* well educated Brits would be familiar with the usage. – FumbleFingers Sep 08 '22 at 16:45
  • Thanks Villem and those Edits make it more clear, there ain't no such critter.

    'je ne sais quoi' might have scraped by the original, but those edits deny even that.

    Perhaps more usefully, in what other languages do you suggest this could work?

     – Robbie Goodwin Sep 08 '22 at 17:49
  • @Robbie Goodwin I'm aware that there's no such placeholder word in my native language, but that belongs to Uralic language family. I started to wonder if it's also the case for other languages. Since English belongs to Indo-European family which is very different, I thought it's worth a try to ask linguists here about it. Who knows, maybe there is a language where it exists, maybe there isn't. But do you have any hypothesis for the absence of such a word? Or why can't pronouns strictly replace nouns? – Villem Sep 08 '22 at 19:11
  • Thanks for that detail and though negatives are hard to prove, I still suggest English has no such option. More importantly, I Ask you how any language you speak, know of or can imagine could have a word or phrase that matched your exposition. Please compare your own examples again, and consider in what circumstances waiting for trains could be compared to throwing away banana skins. – Robbie Goodwin Sep 08 '22 at 19:19
  • @Robbie Goodwin bananas and trains are just illustrative examples that came to me. The real question for me is why isn't there a universal simple noun substitution. Of course, I could rewrite those sentences using pronouns, but then I have to alter those sentences instead of just replacing one word with another. – Villem Sep 08 '22 at 19:34
  • Bananas and trains are far more than just illustrative examples… they're clear evidence that what you Ask is not reasonable, in English or any other language.

    The real question for you should be how a universal simple noun substitution could ever be possible.

    If you think rewriting those sentences using pronouns might help, why not try it?

    Until then, why do you not believe the closest to [placeholder] you're going to get is prolly 'thing', and that that's true for every language?

     – Robbie Goodwin Sep 08 '22 at 19:48
  • Does this answer your question? What colloquial word is used when you don't remember a word but you want to use something for it?. The earlier question is admittedly about colloquial terms, while this one is seeking a noncolloquial one, but the term is bound to be colloquial, as it is only in an informal setting that one would feel free to resort to such a generic placeholder. If one is speaking formally, one would either try harder to find a more specific term, or say explicitly that one doesn't know it. – jsw29 Sep 09 '22 at 20:59
  • Also related: Is there a word which means whatever you want it to mean? Or has no meaning?. – jsw29 Sep 09 '22 at 21:01
  • @jsw29 why are you guys posting answers to comments? Ironically the only answer posted as answer is not really an answer. And why mark it as duplicate when I clearly stated the difference from the linked question? – Villem Sep 10 '22 at 10:56
  • Also related (arguably): Is "thing" the most general in meaning. – jsw29 Sep 12 '22 at 15:50
  • @jsw29 Thanks for the link. I liked your explanation in that answer. I think I may have approached my question from the wrong angle. Lesson for me: before asking a question, think it through until you're sure everyone would understand what you meant. I have read quite a lot on stackexchange and often seen complaints about questions being confusing because they don't include examples. But in my case, many commentators focused on my example and missed my actual question. – Villem Sep 12 '22 at 16:51

1 Answers1

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Look for a more general term. Examples:

  • You have a nice accessory.

  • You have a nice garment.

  • You have a nice outfit.

  • You have a nice piece of jewelry.

But note that (at least in the US), it would be better to say, "What a nice _____" in place of "You have a nice _____."

aparente001
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  • I take it that by 'Look for a more general term' you meant 'Look for the nearest more general term that you do know, but don't look for the most general term that might be applicable' (which is what the OP seems to be seeking). – jsw29 Sep 09 '22 at 21:05
  • @jsw29 - does it matter? Maybe I don't really understand your comment. When trying to function in a language one knows a bit, I find that any more general term can be helpful. – aparente001 Sep 10 '22 at 01:49
  • What I have in mind is that, if one doesn't know the word pendant, referring to it as jewelry is more useful than referring to it as, say, a thing. It is somewhat unclear whether the OP is (1) seeking practical advice on what one should do when one needs to refer to something and doesn't know the precise term for it, or (2) wondering, out of pure curiosity, whether there is a word that is so general that it can cover jewelry, trains, and banana peels. You have interpreted the question as (1), and, if the question is so interpreted, then this answer is perfectly apt. – jsw29 Sep 10 '22 at 15:47
  • @jsw29 it's (2) and I don't understand how is it unclear? – Villem Sep 10 '22 at 17:19
  • @Villem, a part of the question is 'let's say I want to compliment a stranger, but I don't know the English word that represents the object'; that leaves an impression that the question may be (1). Thing, suggested early in the comments, is arguably an answer to (2), but 'You have a nice thing' would not be very effective as a compliment in real-life interaction. – jsw29 Sep 10 '22 at 21:07
  • @jsw29 - Well, it seems I answered the wrong question.... Personally, I don't see anything wrong with "thingamabob" or "what-do-you-call-it." I have nothing else to offer for (1). – aparente001 Sep 12 '22 at 00:39
  • @aparente001 I should've explained better the first time. – Villem Sep 12 '22 at 16:52
  • @Villem - This word exists in another language? – aparente001 Sep 13 '22 at 02:36
  • @aparente001 I have no idea. I know that it doesn't exist in my native language which is very different from English. – Villem Sep 13 '22 at 06:59