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Today I’m reviving a long-lost feature few of you might remember: Thingamajig Thursday. The basic concept used to be that every thursday (give or take), I’d take a close look at some interesting thingamajig - or thingamabob, if you prefer – and let you know the real name of it so you could appear a tad smarter than the next guy, who’s still foolishly calling the thingamajig a thingamajig.
I’ll spend some time reviving a few of my favorites from the blog’s incipient summer days of 2006, and then start with a whole bunch of new ones. This time around, however, I’d love it if you all would join me in trying to rename the thingamajig in question. Most of these have rather lame sounding names. I know you guys love to show off your creative sides, so have at it! I’ll pick one or two of my favorites and post them the following thursday for the whole world to see. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even succeed at coining a new thingamajig word.
So let’s start with the aglet or aiglet, as it’s sometimes spelled. An aglet is that funny plastic or metal cap thingamajig at the end of your shoelace, which is supposed to keep the lace from unraveling. (Though try telling that to my 9-month-old Jack.) The word itself, which can be traced back to the Latin, acus, or needle, is pronounced AG-let, with the accent on the first syllable, not ag-LET. Were the accent on the second syllable, it might be fun to substitute the word into that Frank Sinatra song and sing, “Aglets, I’ve had a few….”
Now: if you’ve got a heck of a lot of free time on your hands, you might want to learn how to repair broken aglets here, at Fieggen.com.
And I’ll leave you with Wiki, who has some additional interesting info on the little aglet, as well:
Before the invention of buttons, [aglets] were used on the ends of ribbons to fasten clothing together. Sometimes they would be formed into small figures. Shakespeare calls this type of figure an “aglet baby” in The Taming of the Shrew.
So, had I invented this thingamajig I’d have called it a fraynot. How about you guys?
Comments (10)
Comment
Better yet, how about “frayed-not”
posted by QMYM on 5-15-2008 at 7:39 am
2 strings go into a bar. 1 says “bartender give me a beer” the bartender tosses them out to the street. String 1 says to string 2 “tie me into a bow and unravel my ends” Sting 1 goes back into the bar and the bartender says ” Aren’t you the string I just threw out of here?” And the string says “Frayed Knot”. Haha
posted by Judi on 5-15-2008 at 8:38 am
The aglet was the featured topic of conversation of one of my favorite Tom Cruise movies…Cocktail, hence I would choose the word “flooglebinder”
posted by Sara on 5-15-2008 at 8:49 am
Why not lacetip or lacestop?
posted by Todd on 5-15-2008 at 10:13 am
I’ve always referred to these things as “fleugelbinders” (pronounced “floo-gul…) and I don’t even know why.
posted by Bill on 5-15-2008 at 11:39 am
I had heard that the guy who invented the Aglet got pretty rich off of it. Kind of like the guy who came up with the Post-It.
posted by Jennifer on 5-15-2008 at 12:39 pm
I would call it the “captive”. Easy enough to remember.
posted by Pearl on 5-15-2008 at 1:19 pm
The aglet has a purpose other than to prevent unwanted unraveling. It eases threading shoelaces through those seemingly unthread-throughable pinholes in your shoes.
So which came first? The aglet or the lace hole?
posted by L on 5-15-2008 at 6:38 pm
I don’t know… I sort of like “aglet”, personally. (Although Firefox tells me that it’s not a word, and that I’m spelling “eaglet” wrong instead.) Say it with me. Aglet. Aaaaaglet. Say it slow. Now say it fast. Now say it with a weird look on your face. Now say it like E.T.
Fun!
posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 5-15-2008 at 8:44 pm
Pointy-Hatted! I feel like it’s been a year or more since I’ve seen your hilarious comments on our blog. Welcome back (iffin’ you indeed left)
posted by David K. Israel on 5-15-2008 at 10:23 pm