Today I Found Out
Where Does the Word Doohickey Come From? (2018x60)
Ausstrahlung: Mär 02, 2018
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In this video:
A commonly held folk etymology for “doohickey” is that it derives from the mark left on a leaf after dew has evaporated, with said mark essentially being akin to a the skin-blemish definition of the word “hickey.” Thus, lacking a commonly known word for such, people referred to this dew mark as a “dew hickey,” with this later evolving to “doohickey” and eventually expanded to be used to refer to anything that was a “thing” one couldn’t come up with the name of. This origin story, however, has no documented evidence to support it and the evidence at hand seems to easily disprove it given that “hickey,” meaning “a skin blemish,” didn’t pop up until a couple decades after its inclusion in the word “doohickey.”
Want the text version?: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2018/01/doohickey-mean-gadget/
Sources:
https://archive.org/details/spunyarnspindrif00brow
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doodad#English
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doohickey
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hickey#English
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/magazine/whosits-whatchamacallit.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placeholder_name
https://www.etymonline.com/word/doodad
https://www.etymonline.com/word/doohickey
https://books.google.com/books?id=pd-czJoEDtQC&pg=PA542&lpg=PA542&dq=etymology+doodad&source=bl&ots=eF28dDG7_A&sig=MxqtmsZbLod3ZxDZwmjpPVYF60o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1sLuT9LzYA
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