Still Alice by LISA GENOVAを読んでいます。
She could only stomach watching the Alice Howland video once. She used to be so eloquent, so comfortable talking in front of any audience. Now, she overused the word thingy and repeated herself an embarrasing number of times.
アルツハイマーになったら使いそうな言葉とは、アルツハイマーでなくとも歳をとると多用する例のあれですね。 一応 "thingy" を辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A person or thing whose name one has forgotten, does not know, or does not wish to mention.: So, I am going to have to buy one of those memory card thingies.
・Macmillan Dictionary: used for referring to something when you do not know or cannot remember the name of it: Hand me one of those red thingies over there.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: sometimes used if you can't remember someone's or something's name: Can you pass me that thingy - you know, that clip thing for holding papers together.
英語では "thingy" の他にも "something" を使うはずと思っていたら、他の場面でAliceが "something" を次のように使っていました。
"You don't want vanilla, you want something chocolate."
"Okay then, I'll have something chocolate."