"Nec laudas nisi mortuos poetas: tanti non est, ut palceam, perire. -
Martial
On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 12:46:36 -0700, wrote:

Doohickey and dingus, however, are the preferred technical
terms for simpler parts that fit onto more complicated
thingamabobs or gizmos.

Thesauristically,

Carl Fogel

They might be the common words in use within your cloistered world of
motorcycles and bicycles, but other fields have jargon of their own.
For instance, the years I spent in one-design sailing introduced me to
the world of snivvies and dammits.

It's not easy to develop the nuances of how snivvies and dammits
differ from gizmos and doohickies (other than their nautical
provenance) except to say that my experience suggests that your
sailboat can generally be rigged to work with the snivvies and dammits
at hand, whereas most bicycles or motorcycles are rendered inoperable
unless you have the exact thingamabob.

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John Dacey
Business Cycles, Miami, Florida
http://www.businesscycles.com
Since 1983
Our catalog of track equipment: online since 1996
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