Foreign language placeholder names

Words — larasphotography

In response to my good friend Emma's thought-provoking comment on "Un-translate-able words," I did some reflecting on that linguistic concept. Her point reminded me of a theory called linguistic determinism, and I ruminated a little more on the proper term for those words in other languages without equivalents in our native languages.

Along the way, I found the answer to a different question entirely, but still one that might interest the masses! There is a term for those words we use when, in our native language, we don't have a specific number, name or place in mind. Some English examples are: podunk towns and the boonies, the nth time, what's-his-face, and a freckle past the hair. The name for these classes of words is placeholder names. Check out the definitions for these and a massive list of others on the English placeholder name Wikipedia page! I was fascinated to see a certain Canadian placeholder name equivalent to "bumblef***" that I dearly hope the Canadians really use. See if you can find it.

The foreign language list of placeholder names is equally fascinating, and it reminded me just how many layers there are to really knowing a language well. It wasn't until I lived in France, for example, that I discovered the true and proper usage of machin (thingamajig). And even after several months there, I still hadn't heard à la Saint Glinglin — an imaginary time for setting rendez-vous! Wikipedia's edu-tainment value is limitless.

As for untranslateable words, or counterpart-less foreign words, or descriptive anomalies, I'll find the real name for those à la Saint Glinglin, I guess.