Brits Use 50 Words For Remote Control
Steve Barnes·Sep 19, 2013
PRESS RELEASE: September 2013
They say the eskimos have 50 words for snow – now a new study has revealed that us Brits have 50 words for our remote control.
From the stick to the ‘mote to the oojimeflip, it seems we are a nation who just aren’t quite sure what we should call our channel changers, according to research from NetVouchercodes.co.uk.
Users on the shopping site were asked what they called their remote control and the 50 most popular answers are released today for the first time.
There are a few familiar names on the list such as the flipper and the zapper but there are also a few surprises – including the yeti, the doflicky and the melly.
Perhaps most surprisingly of all is ‘Trevor’ – a name chosen by the site as generic for anyone who calls their remote by a human sounding name.
A spokesman for NetVoucherCodes.co.uk said: “It seems no one in Britain is quite sure what word to use for their remote control.
“It’s a device we all use every day but the official name ‘the remote control’ is three words, five syllables and is too clunky to trip of the tongue easily.
“That’s why everyone tries to shorten it to something a little snappier but to date a consensus hasn’t been reached on what we should call it.
“As well as all the usual stuff such as whatsit and flipper we found many people actually have a human name for their remote such as Trevor or Dave. Rather than list all these we lumped all human names together as Trevor.
“It may seem funny but we are in a situation where we have a proliferation of words for this simple device but no one really knows what we should call it.
“Perhaps it’s time we had a national referendum on what we should call our remote controls? Or else maybe the people who compile the Oxford English Dictionary could take a stand and choose a word for us to embrace?
“Something clearly has to be done. We can’t go on calling our remote controls Trevor for much longer.”
Here are the top 50 names in no particular order:
1. The remote
2. The flipper
3. The do-dar
4. The clicker
5. The switcher
6. The doubery
7. The dangle
8. The thingy
9. The thing
10. The whatjamacallit
11. The thingymajiggy
12. The hopper
13. The stick
14. The do-for
15. The changer
16. The flapper
17. The remote control
18. The controller
19. The zapper
20. The whatsit
21. The dingle
22. The clacker
23. The wand
24. The yeti
25. The changer
26. The thingmajig
27. The blaster
28. The zipper
29. The dongle
30 The blibber
31. The black box
32. The melly
33. The plonker
34. The didge
35. The buttons
36. The ‘mote
37. The trolls
38. The hoofer-doofer
39. The doofla
40. The flicky
41. The doflicky
42. The onner-offer
43. The hum dinger
44. The gizmo
45. The tuner
46. The converter
47. The binky
48. The infer
49. The ooyimeflip
50. Trevor
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