thingy

See also: Thingy

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈθɪŋiː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈθɪŋi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋi

Etymology 1

From thing +‎ -y (diminutive suffix).

Alternative forms

• thingie, thingee

Noun

thingy (plural thingies)

1. (informal) A thing (used to refer to something vaguely or when one cannot recall or does not wish to mention its name).

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:thingy

   • 1996, Antonio Skármeta, translated by Jonathan Tittler, Love-Fifteen, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Latin American Literary Review Press, →ISBN, page 115:

     And as soon as that temperature returns to normal, let’s talk about the thingies that go through your headie at night.

   • 2013, Iain Banks, Raw Spirit, page 60:

     What I should really do, of course, is use a Personal Digital Assistant; one of those tiny hand-held computerette thingies […]

   • 2023, Steve G Romaniuk, Tales from the Alternate Universe: Vol. 1:

     The incorporated technology is based on absolutely serious alt-fact science—that old familiar Einsteiny, time dilation thingy only in reverse— which also forms the basis of much of LaLa Valley's tech AI prowess.

2. (slang, euphemistic, childish) A penis.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:penis

   • 2004, Richard Tinsley, Walking on the Son:

     He pulled out his thingy. It was huge.

Translations

a thing

• Basque: zera
• Bulgarian: как се казваше (kak se kazvaše)
• Catalan: daixonses (ca), fòtil (ca)
• Dutch: dinges (nl) m
• Esperanto: umo (eo)
• Finnish: juttu (fi), kapine (fi), vekotin (fi)
• French: bidule (fr) m, machin (fr) m, truc (fr) m, chose (fr) f
• Galician: conto (gl) m, couso m, aquel (gl) m, aqueloutro m, aquela f
• Georgian: რაღაცა (raɣaca)
• German: Dings (de), Dingsbums (de), Dingsda (de), Etwas (de)
• Greek: μαραφέτι (el) n (maraféti), μαντζαφλάρι (el) n (mantzaflári)

  Ancient: σκινδαψός m (skindapsós)

• Hungarian: izé (hu), micsoda (hu), hogyishívják (hu)
• Italian: coso (it), qualcosa (it), robo (it) m
• Japanese: あれ (ja) (are), やつ (ja) (yatsu)
• Maori: mea
• Navajo: ńléí, eidí, eii
• Norwegian: duppeditt m, dippedutt m

  Bokmål: dingsbums (no) m

• Persian: چیز (fa)
• Polish: wihajster (pl) m
• Portuguese: treco (pt), negócio (pt) m, bagaça (pt) f, coisa (pt) f, troço (pt) m, bagulho (pt) m, cena (pt)
• Romanian: chestie (ro) f
• Russian: шту́ка (ru) f (štúka), шту́чка (ru) f (štúčka), штуко́вина (ru) f (štukóvina)
• Spanish: chisme (es) m, chirimbolo (es) m, coso (es) m (Latin America), chunche (es) m (Mexico, Central America)
• Swedish: grej (sv) c, pryl (sv) c, manick (sv) c, tingest (sv) c
• Ukrainian: цей (uk) (cej), цейво (cejvo), той (uk) (toj), тойво (tojvo), як його (jak joho), штука f (štuka)
• Vietnamese: gì đó

Pronoun

thingy

2. (informal) A person whose name one cannot recall.

   Hyponyms: what's-his-name, what's-her-name, what's-his-face, what's-her-face

   He reminds me of thingy from that film.

Etymology 2

From thing +‎ -y (adjectival suffix).

Adjective

thingy (comparative thingier, superlative thingiest)

1. Resembling or characteristic of a thing; tangible.
   • 1985, A. S. Byatt, Still Life:

     The most unpleasant, and also the thingiest, the central thing in Foreign Parts, was a giant banyan tree, putting out more and more suckers which created tangled arches, a swollen hiding-place of a tree, a series of organic traps, […]

   • 2017, Francis Spufford, True Stories: And Other Essays, page 128:

     The secret of even the thingiest SF, the most solid-walnut-to-the-knuckles fantasy, is that you don't need much to summon worlds out of air, so long as the details are the right ones.

References

• “thingummy, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Further reading

• Wikipedia article on placeholder names

Anagrams

• nighty