Thingumy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person or object whose name you cannot remember or do not know
2. Someone or something you are unable to name or identify at that moment
3. A thing or individual whose proper name escapes you or remains unknown to you

Etymology: Thingumy is a 19th-century colloquial coinage, not a word with a long ancestry. It was formed in English by adding the diminutive suffix "-y" (as in "Tommy" or "hanky") to "thing," and it appears in print from around the early 1800s as a stand-in for a name one cannot recall or does not care to supply. The same pattern produced "thingummy" and "thingamajig," which are closely related variants. The word's history is therefore mostly a matter of how the pattern spread rather than how the sound changed. Like "whatsit" and "doodah," it fills the slot of a noun whose name has slipped away, and its informal, slightly affectionate tone comes from the diminutive ending. Its exact first appearance in print is uncertain, so I would not pin it to a single year.

Synonyms: thingamajig, whatsit, doohickey