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Kwishura

Placeholder names

ca, kivuye

Ubutumwa 7

ururimi: English

Oŝo-Jabe (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 16 Munyonyo 2009 19:58:06

What are the common placeholder names for things on the tips of your tongue in Esperanto? Words like: thingamabob, watchamacallit, whats-his-face. I've seen S-ro Ajnulo for John Doe, but is it even more generally usable? Is -um used for these?

Miland (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 16 Munyonyo 2009 20:10:28

IMO there are many possibilities here. Not finding a word or name at the spur of the moment, we might use mi ne scias or mi forgesis la vorton/lian nomon. For a non-specific object we might use la aĵo or la afero.

Ailanto (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 21 Munyonyo 2009 00:25:06

I've seen umo in several dictionaries. Including the one at lernu!

jchthys (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 21 Munyonyo 2009 20:36:27

I've seen the word zozo mentioned before.

Otherwise, aĵo (for an object) and umo (for a concept) are good and probably more understandable.

ceigered (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 22 Munyonyo 2009 11:03:42

In Australian English we'd just say "whoop whoop" for a place we don't know the name of, e.g. "Out the back o' whoop whoop"

I guess using similar logic you could construct a word, e.g. "loĝoloko" lango.gif

(lit. "living place", so it's generic in meaning too lango.gif)

Ah, morgaŭ ni iros al loĝoloko... aŭ kiu ajn nomo ĝi havas.

Miland (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 22 Munyonyo 2009 12:53:28

ceigered:Ah, morgaŭ ni iros al loĝoloko... aŭ kiu ajn nomo ĝi havas.
La loko, 'the place' or la ejo, 'the place for something' might be useful when we've forgotten the name. But other suffixes could also be used as placeholders generally - la ujo, la ilo, la ulo, etc.

ceigered (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 22 Munyonyo 2009 17:13:23

But ejo doesn't sound foreign or comedic enough lango.gif

(Maybe Australians are the only ones who feel the need to make that random place they've conveniently renamed "whoop whoop" mid-conversation sound funny)

Subira ku ntango