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I need to explain this one a bit, as there are lots of possibilities for just "thingy" e.g. cosa, chisme, carraca, chirimbolo ...
Most of these words imply that the thing either isn't worth mentioning or that the speaker can't remember its exact name. What I'm searching for is a word (preferably slang) to stand in for something which the speaker does not want / is afraid to mention [maybe such a distinction doesn't exit in Spanish?].
The following aren't great examples but
1) The Israelites did not speak the name of God, so they used a phrase "he whose name must not be spoken" which became JHWH (and hence Jehovah, or tetragrammaton in Greek).
2) Humorously in English a wife is sometimes referred to as "she who must be obeyed"
Explanation: Tengo un ejemplo muy cercano de una persona a la nunca queremos volve a mencionar, ni su presencia recordar, por el daño que nos causó en su día. En la familia nos referimos a él como "el innombrable". No creo, sin embargo, que exista un término "estándar"
DLyons, gracias por tan interesante pregunta, que desató respuestas igualmente interesantes. Sólo quería señalar que si bien diste dos ejemplos de personas, tu pregunta hablaba de 'something the speaker does not want or is afraid to mention' además del título que hablaba de 'thingy' y 'unmentionable' (esto último suele aludir a ropa interior, tampones, etc.) O sea que podría haber sido un poco más clara la consulta de entrada, de que se refería a personas... De todos modos, gracias y saludos.
Sí, es verdad que el ejemplo que traje a colación, el de Perón como 'el Innombrable', coincide con lo que dices; para la acepción específica de una persona a quien se rechaza de cuajo, se odia o se quiere condenar al olvido, es la palabra justa. Ya que DLyons ha aclarado posteriormente que le interesaba esta acepción, estoy en total acuerdo contigo. Gran saludo! - Pablo
A common "person vs thing" distinction emerged and this was something that I hadn't thought of. But all my own examples relate to people (Wilde's "the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable" occurred to me later on).
I'm afraid I don't. The translator's "una cosa grande y peluda", does conjure up a picture in my mind, but one that may say more about me than about the word :-)
DLyons's question/examples cover wide range of reasons for not mentioning sthg: Hebraic religious reticence - actually taboo - vs saying the Divine name; social taboo vs naming sexual or excretory parts; humorous rephrasing. All very interesting, all quite different. For what it's worth, in rioplatense popular speech, 'coso' is widely used equivalent to engl. 'thingamajig/whatchamacallit'; is also used, along w/ Mónica's 'cusifai' for a person whose name can't be remembered or in derogatory vein. 'She-who-must-be-obeyed' comes from H. Rider Haggard's Victorian novel 'She' about a goddess figure, Ayesha; I believe the Horace Rumpole character in the old Masterpiece Theater series, unforgettably played by the late Leo McKern, did much to (re)popularize the humorous use of the phrase for wife. Then there's Cockney rhyming slang, 'the trouble and strife' - please excuse the sexism of the term, todo esto es por amor al arte (o a la filología) nomás!
Creo que en el caso del español, vamos a necesitar especificar si es un dialecto especifico... yo pase una verguenza con unos Urugayos por decir traste (que en El Salvador son platos, vasos, etc) y en Uruguay...@Monica sabrá!
I don't have much context. This is given in a word list as US Slang "booger" = "unmentionable thing". A very competent native Spanish speaker has more or less thrown her hands up with a translators note " No se como definirlo, es una cosa grande y peluda." :-) [I'm not sure how seriously that should be taken!!!]
I suspect Isabel's "inombrable" may be as close as we'll get, but I'd be very interested in hearing any of your possibilities.
Hay una gran diversidad de opciones, según el contexto. ¿Podrías decirnos en qué contexto específico necesitas el término?
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5 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +4
innombrable
Explanation: Tengo un ejemplo muy cercano de una persona a la nunca queremos volve a mencionar, ni su presencia recordar, por el daño que nos causó en su día. En la familia nos referimos a él como "el innombrable". No creo, sin embargo, que exista un término "estándar"
isabel murillo Local time: 12:11 Native speaker of: Catalan, Spanish PRO pts in category: 16
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Thanks Isabel. I hadn't know about the Peron connection!
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +4
