Etymology

oojah capivvy

Today it means: Something that one cannot name or does not know the name of; a whatsit. Full definition →

Neapolitan agio
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The story

  1. Neapolitan · derived fromagio
  2. English todayoojah capivvy

Unknown. Perhaps from Urdu ḥujjat kāfī fīhi (“argument is sufficient”); compare oojah. Sornig (see quotations below) suggests derivation from Neapolitan agio capit (“I've understood”), but seems to be alone in this suggestion. Attested from the 1910s, often described as soldiers’ or sailors’ slang.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.