At a hardware store, searching for an item we don’t know the name of is a common problem. I usually take along an example or a picture of it, and then ask the clerk where it can be found. What Wikipedia calls an acorn nut is shown above. It has a domed end on one side, and an internal thread on the other. When used over the exposed end of an external thread, it covers and protects. That fastener also may be referred to as a crown hex nut, blind nut, cap nut, dome nut, or a domed cap nut (which is how this image is labeled at Wikimedia Commons).
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a doodad as:
“an often small article whose common name is unknown or forgotten”
And a thingamajig is:
“something that is hard to classify or whose name is unknown or forgotten”
The scaffold nails shown above are another type of fastener thingamajig. The McMaster-Carr hardware catalog helpfully lists them as Raised-Head Removable Nails and describes their use:
“Also known as scaffold and duplex nails, drive these nails in up to the first head and the second head remains exposed for easy removal.”
In the Wikipedia article on Nails this type is called duplex nails, and also termed double-headed, formwork, shutter, and scaffold.
There also are specialized tools like the basin wrench shown above. At the spruce there is an article about How to Use a Basin Wrench to install or remove a sink faucet. The image is from Wikimedia Commons.
An article by Dan Nosowitz at Atlas Obscura on March 24, 2016 is titled The enduring mystery of ‘jawn,’ Philadelphia’s all-purpose noun. The Wikipedia article on Jawn declares that:
“Jawn is a slang term local to Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley that may refer to a thing, place, person, or event, substituting for a specific name. Jawn is a context-dependent substitute noun; a noun that substitutes for other nouns.”
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