Gimbo (n)

Means: Whatever you want it to mean

Usage: “Can you pass me that gimbo, the one over there.”

“Everyone knows Shelley’s a complete gimbo.”

Not all Yoofspeak is urban and cool. The latest generation of inarticulate simpletons have come up with their own modern equivalents of “thingummybob” and “whatchamacallit”. A case in point is the silly-sounding, essentially meaningless “gimbo”. It also comes in the forms “gimbot”, “gimboid”, “gimble”, “gim” and - a favourite with the video-gaming fraternity - “gimulate” or “gimbulate”. All of these can be used to denote what one of my nerdy informants called “a total and absolute idiot”. Sometimes, though, they substitute for anything or anyone whose name is temporarily forgotten, are dropped randomly into conversations or uttered as chants and war cries (“Gimbo! Gimbo!”). Occasionally, they function as internet pseudonyms (there seem to be several Gimbos, at least one Gimbot and a couple of Gimbles gimbulating online - unless, of course, they are all one and the same irritating gim).