Gubbins

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɡʌb.ɪnz/

Definitions

1. A collection of miscellaneous items or gadgets, especially those of little value or unclear purpose, or a foolish or incompetent person
2. A term used to describe assorted items or gadgets that lack clear value or purpose, or can refer to a person who is clumsy or inept
3. This word denotes an assortment of trivial objects or mechanical parts, as well as someone considered ineffectual or silly

Etymology: Before "gubbins" meant a jumble of worthless bits, it meant a piece or portion of something. The word traces back to the Middle English "goboun", which came from Anglo-Norman "gobon", and it appears in English by around 1553 in the form "gobbin", meaning a slice or fragment. Something like a morsel of food or a chunk of material was a gobbin. Over time the sense drifted from a single piece toward a collection of small, leftover pieces, and then toward the odds and ends themselves, often of little value. The plural ending "-s" shows up in the modern form, and by the time speakers were using it for clutter, the original idea of a fragment had mostly faded. English also had "gobony", a line of alternating squares, which shares the same root and hints at the old sense of separate pieces making up a whole.

Synonyms: bits, odds and ends, scraps, junk, rubbish