Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) an unspecified or unspecifiable person or object.

a.1882		Phila. Times n.p.: The two negro girls, who figure as ‘what-is-its,’ are paid $200 a week [DA].
1898		W. Pett Ridge Mord Em’ly 20: As for you, Mrs. What-is-it, I’m perfectly aware that you’re the only lidy in the buildings.
1898		J.D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 53: You’ve seen that picture in the papers advertising what’s-it’s soap.
1917		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 30 May [synd. col.] Finally I asked / Lillibridge / Where he got / The Unsociable Whatsit / In the front seat.
1929		T. Wolfe Look Homeward, Angel (1930) 153: ‘There are two things I want to see,’ said Mary, ‘a rooster’s you-know-what and a hen’s what-is-it.’.
1930		‘Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint 131: ‘Who are you?’ [...] ‘His Royal Highness the Prince What’s-it of I-forget-where.’.
1932		V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 30: Take that crazy bastard that was over in whatsis county.
1936		N. Marsh Death in Ecstasy 207: Like hell he will, the dirty what’s it.
1943		in T. Harrisson Mass-Observation War Factory: Report 1: I expect Mrs. Whats-it here will ration the light to us, or something, so we can’t read.
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: Whatsis . . . articles whose technical names escape you for the moment.
1954		Kerouac letter 11 Aug. in Charters I (1995) 431: Got a [...] big bag of whatzit from Long Island.
1957		R. Prather Always Leave ’Em Dying 126: If anything would pass, this ghastly whatisit will pass.
1959		A. Ginsberg ‘Kaddish’ [poem] We got there — Dr. Whatzis rest home — she hid behind a closet.
1965		(con. 1944) E.M. Nathanson Dirty Dozen (2002) 353: The girl was found naked, raped and with a surgical knife up her whatsis.
1968		P. Terson Apprentices (1970) I i: You look as though you’ve got an anchor tied to your whatsit!
1970		B. Aldiss Hand-Reared Boy 164: It was a funny house, a lot of sporting what’s-its on the walls.
1970		‘Troy Conway’ Cunning Linguist (1973) 136: She shook her whatsit tantalizingly.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 17: This country can make all them cars, toasters, ice boxes [...] meanwhile it’s still hung up on the race watzis.
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 108: ‘It’s his thesis,’ I said. ‘His whatsis?’ said Mick.
1980		A. Burgess Earthly Powers 21: Have we not here the most delicious classical bit of psychowhatsit of everyday life.
1983		A. Payne ‘Get Daley!’ Minder [TV script] 48: Here, Terry, Do you believe in, you know, whatsit, God?
1983		S. King Christine 322: It must be part of your claustrophobia whatzis.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 16: Maybe Timmy spreads some cheese on his whatsis.
1991		P. Carey Tax Inspector (1992) 56: The runaway had [...] a bag of detonators in a little lilac whats-oh hanging round her neck.
1992		M. Frayn Now You Know 108: Put all her whatsits down the karzy?
1999		Indep. Rev. 17 July 20: By fiddling with a little wotsit at the back, you can get them to turn from side to side.
1999		Indep. Rev. 2 Aug. 1: Well, Danielle whatsit came in the other night.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 52: She’s been put through her paces by the very top trick-cyclists, child psycho-watsits.
2000		J. Hawes Dead Long Enough 274: An intelligent autowhatsit, you know, someone who educated themselves.
2005		H. Mantel Beyond Black 211: By Christ, did I wallop you when I found those wotsits in your pocket.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 675: ‘[N]ever knowing what happened because you ain’t got the whatsit... the ability to know’.

2. the penis.

1960

A. Burgess Doctor Is Sick (1972) 11: The tubed fixed to it at one end is fixed to my old whatsit at the other. Keeps drippin’ in all day.

3. a homosexual or lesbian.

1980

‘John le Carré’ Smiley’s People 173: Loves him, doesn’t he, Hils? They’re a proper pair of raving whatsits, same as us.