شوإسمو

Univerbation of شُو إِسْمُو (šu ʔismo, literally “what's its name?”), from شُو (šū, šu, “what”) +‎ إِسْم (ʔism, “name”) +‎ ـُو (-o, “its”, third-person masculine possessive pronoun). Compare English whatsitsname.

• IPA^(key): /ʃu.ˈʔis.mo, -u/ [ʃuˈʔesmo, ʃuˈʔəsmo, -u]

شُوإِسْمُو • (šuʔismo or šuʔismu) m (plural شُوإِسْمهُن (šuʔismun), feminine شُوإِسْمها (šuʔisma))

1. (typically definite) whatsitsname, whatsit, whatchamacallit, thingamajig

   هَات الشُّوإِسْمُو لَفِكّ هَالبِرْغِي.

   hāt š-šuʔismo la fikk hal-birḡi.

   Hand me the whatsit so I can unscrew this screw.

   • 1974 [recorded 1964], Henri Fleisch, “IV. Textes en arabe dialectal de la montagne libanaise. Limite entre parlers non différentiels et parlers différentiels (Deuxième série : Textes différentiels)”, in Études d'Arabe Dialectal [Studies of Dialectal Arabic], B. Études sur le dialectal libanais (overall work in French), Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, sourced from informant جان البستاني (Jean Boustâni), published 1974, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 195:

     ḥafle͕t ṣai̯d. ʾəlna ʿammē ʾəza badna nmūt ʿazrā̊yil mā raḥ nēhrob^{[sic – meaning nəhrob?]} mənno ; ᵊl-ʾafḍal ʾənno nḍall ʾǟʿdīn taḥᵊt haš šū ʾəsmo... wə-nṣallīlna šway, mənʾūl fəʿl ᵊn-nadēme, ʾəza mətna ʿal-ʾalīlė mnəṭlaʿ ʿas-sama ;

     [(حفلة صيد.) قلنا عمي إذا بدنا نموت عزرايل ما رح نهرب منو؛ الأفضل إنو نضل قاعدين تحت هالشوإسمو... ونصليلنا شوي، منقول فعل الندامة، إذا متنا عالقليلة منطلع عالسما؛]

     A hunting expedition. We said, "Guys, if we're about to die, we're not going to escape Azrael; it'd be better for us to stay sat here under this whatsit... and do us some praying, we'll say the Act of Contrition, if we die at least we'll go to heaven;
     [original: Une expédition de chasse. « Mon cher, avons-nous dit, si nous devons mourir, ʿAzrâyil, nous ne lui échapperons pas. Le mieux est de rester assis sous ce, comment il s'appelle... et nous prierons pour nous un peu et nous dirons l'acte de contrition ; si nous mourons, du moins nous monterons au ciel » ;]

• The phrase شُو اسم (šu ʔism, literally “what's [...]'s name”) may also be used interrogatively as a normal question.

  2024, Mahmut Ağbaht, “Text V: Life then and Now (A)” (chapter 6.5), in The Arabic Dialect of Šɛ̄xṭɔ̄ba/Shaykh Taba (northern Lebanon) in its Regional context (overall work in English), Uppsala University, Texts (section 6), page 190:

  kɛ̄n fi hɛ̄da l-… hɛ̄da l šu ʔism[oˑ]#? | hɛ̄da l-lɛ̄pṭō#?

  [كان في هادا الـ... هادا الشوإسمو؟ هادا اللاپطو[پ]؟]

  [Back in the old days, w]as there this… this what’s-it-called? This laptop?

  The traditional dialect of Cheikh Taba deletes most final consonants in pause. Ağbaht notates pausal forms with #, so the transcription lɛ̄pṭō# indicates that the word lɛ̄pṭōp (“laptop”) is being pronounced lɛ̄pṭō due to being in pause.