The words we use

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By Bob Batz

Senior Moments

I’ve always gotten a kick about some of the words that have been used over the years to describe things we can’t come up with easy-to-remember words for.

“Phil,” the garage mechanic says, “hand me the thing-a-ma-jig from the tool box, please.”

“Hey, Nancy, what’s that doo-hickey dangling from your refrigerator door?”

“ Hey, Gertie, who got you that what-cha-ma-call-it on your kitchen cupboard?” Earl asks his friend Gertrude.

At one time, thing-a-ma-jigs, what-cha-ma-call-its and doo-hickeys were all part of the American language.

Our language also included doo-dads and thingies.

You don’t hear any of those words very often these days and for the life of me I can’t figure out why.

Why did so many popular words and phrases just “bite the dust? “ as lots of people used to say.

And, hey, where did they go?

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By Bob Batz

Bob Batz is a retired long-time journalist and weekly columnist. Contact Bob at [email protected].

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