doodad

See also: doo-dad

English

Alternative forms

• doo-dad (rare)
• dodad, do-dad (rare)

Etymology

Unknown; attested since the 1880s. Compare earlier daud (“a piece of something”), later doohickey (“a thing (whose name one cannot recall)”).

Noun

doodad (plural doodads)

1. A thing (used in a vague way to refer to something whose name one cannot recall); especially an unspecified gadget, device, or part.

   My mom has a clever doodad for peeling oranges.

   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep:

     The room was too big, the ceiling was too high, the doors were too tall, and the white carpet that went from wall to wall looked like a fresh fall of snow at Lake Arrowhead. There were full-length mirrors and crystal doodads all over the place.

Synonyms

• (UK) doodah
• See also Thesaurus:thingy

Translations

thingy — see thingy

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• “doodad”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “doodad”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading

• Wikipedia article on placeholder names