The definition of the word gadget

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A gadget is a mechanical device or any ingenious article.^[2] Gadgets are sometimes referred to as gizmos.

History[edit]

The etymology of the word is disputed. The word first appears as reference to an 18th-century tool in glassmaking that was developed as a spring pontil.^[3] As stated in the glass dictionary published by the Corning Museum of Glass, a gadget is a metal rod with a spring clip that grips the foot of a vessel and so avoids the use of a pontil. Gadgets were first used in the late 18th century.^[4] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there is anecdotal evidence for the use of «gadget» as a placeholder name for a technical item whose precise name one can’t remember since the 1850s; with Robert Brown’s 1886 book Spunyarn and Spindrift, A sailor boy’s log of a voyage out and home in a China tea-clipper containing the earliest known usage in print.^[5]

A widely circulated story holds that the word gadget was «invented» when Gaget, Gauthier & Cie, the company behind the repoussé construction of the Statue of Liberty (1886), made a small-scale version of the monument and named it after their firm; however this contradicts the evidence that the word was already used before in nautical circles, and the fact that it did not become popular, at least in the USA, until after World War I.^[5] Other sources cite a derivation from the French gâchette which has been applied to various pieces of a firing mechanism, or the French gagée, a small tool or accessory.^[5]

The October 1918 issue of Notes and Queries contains a multi-article entry on the word «gadget» (12 S. iv. 187). H. Tapley-Soper of The City Library, Exeter, writes:

A discussion arose at the Plymouth meeting of the Devonshire Association in 1916 when it was suggested that this word should be recorded in the list of local verbal provincialisms. Several members dissented from its inclusion on the ground that it is in common use throughout the country; and a naval officer who was present said that it has for years been a popular expression in the service for a tool or implement, the exact name of which is unknown or has for the moment been forgotten. I have also frequently heard it applied by motor-cycle friends to the collection of fitments to be seen on motor cycles. ‘His handle-bars are smothered in gadgets’ refers to such things as speedometers, mirrors, levers, badges, mascots, &c., attached to the steering handles. The ‘jigger’ or short-rest used in billiards is also often called a ‘gadget’; and the name has been applied by local platelayers to the ‘gauge’ used to test the accuracy of their work. In fact, to borrow from present-day Army slang, ‘gadget’ is applied to ‘any old thing.’^[6]

The usage of the term in military parlance extended beyond the navy. In the book «Above the Battle» by Vivian Drake, published in 1918 by D. Appleton & Co., of New York and London, being the memoirs of a pilot in the British Royal Flying Corps, there is the following passage: «Our ennui was occasionally relieved by new gadgets — «gadget» is the Flying Corps slang for invention! Some gadgets were good, some comic and some extraordinary.»^[7]

By the second half of the twentieth century, the term «gadget» had taken on the connotations of compactness and mobility. In the 1965 essay «The Great Gizmo» (a term used interchangeably with «gadget» throughout the essay), the architectural and design critic Reyner Banham defines the item as:

A characteristic class of US products––perhaps the most characteristic––is a small self-contained unit of high performance in relation to its size and cost, whose function is to transform some undifferentiated set of circumstances to a condition nearer human desires. The minimum of skills is required in its installation and use, and it is independent of any physical or social infrastructure beyond that by which it may be ordered from catalogue and delivered to its prospective user. A class of servants to human needs, these clip-on devices, these portable gadgets, have coloured American thought and action far more deeply––I suspect––than is commonly understood.^[1]

Other uses[edit]

The first atomic bomb was nicknamed the gadget by the Scientists of the Manhattan Project, tested at the Trinity site.

Application gadgets[edit]

In the software industry, «Gadget» refers to computer programs that provide services without needing an independent application to be launched for each one, but instead run in an environment that manages multiple gadgets. There are several implementations based on existing software development techniques, like JavaScript, form input, and various image formats. Proprietary formats include Google Desktop, Google Gadgets, Microsoft Gadgets, the AmigaOS Workbench and dashboard software Apple Widgets.

The earliest^{[citation needed]} documented use of the term gadget in context of software engineering was in 1985 by the developers of AmigaOS, the operating system of the Amiga computers (intuition.library and also later gadtools.library). It denotes what other technological traditions call GUI widget—a control element in graphical user interface. This naming convention remains in continuing use (as of 2008) since then.

The X11^[8] windows system ‘Intrinsics’^[9] also defines gadgets and their relationship to widgets (buttons, labels etc.). The gadget was a windowless widget which was supposed to improve the performance of the application by reducing the memory load on the X server. A gadget would use the Window id of its parent widget and had no children of its own

It is not known whether other software companies are explicitly drawing on that inspiration when featuring the word in names of their technologies or simply referring to the generic meaning. The word widget is older in this context. In the movie «Back to School» from 1986 by Alan Metter, there is a scene where an economics professor Dr. Barbay, wants to start for educational purposes a fictional company that produces «widgets: It’s a fictional product.»

See also[edit]

• Domestic technology
• Electronics
• Gadget Magazines
• Gizmo (disambiguation)
• Gadget Flow
• Inspector Gadget
• Merchandising
• Multi-tool
• Widget

References[edit]

Definition Gadget

A gadget is a hardware device or accessory that makes your life more comfortable or more enjoyable. Gadgets are also familiar as gizmos. If you look around you, surely have some at hand.

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The Etymology of the word gadget

Although there are several theories about the etymology of the term gadget the most popular goes back to the years 1884-1885, when the French company that was responsible for the founding of the Statue of Liberty, “Gadget, Gauthier & Cia,” decided to sell miniature replicas of the monument to finance the project.

There is another theory that says, in the field of navigation, which ensures that it comes from the Francophone terms gâchette or gagé. In any case, the term began to use and became popular in Anglo-Saxon countries in the 1980s.

Gadgets and popular culture

Also, non-English speaking countries use the word gadget. For example, in France and other European countries, it was extending through the animation series “Inspector Gadget.”

Whose protagonist, a clumsy and clueless detective, equippes with endless gadgets that came out of his hat like a hand with an umbrella (gadgetoparaguas) or a radar (gadgetoradar).

Also, in movies like “James Bond” or in the series “Batman” and “Iron Man,” we see how the protagonists are always dependent on their equipment and gadgets. On the Internet, there are also multiple websites and blogs dedicated to the world of gizmos. Another word that many Internet users use to refer to a gadget.

 Types of gadgets

All kinds of technological devices such as iPod mobiles, or PDAs electronic gadgets such as radios. And devices with integrated circuits, mechanics such as

• bikes,
• watches,
• thermometers or computers,
• mini-applications called Widgets that facilitate access to frequently used functions are examples of gadgets.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages of Electronic Gadgets

Electronic gadgets have revolutionized the way we communicate, work, play, shop. The benefits of electronic gadgets are they make our lives simpler and more comfortable.

Gadgets help us stay connected by giving access to email,

• text messages,
• phone services,
• video chat, and social media. Electronic devices have changed the world of shopping by allowing online shoppers to buy millions of products with the tap of a finger.

Disadvantages of Electronic Gadgets

The production and disposal of these devices have a significant effect on the global environment. Many devices contain hazardous materials that can contaminate soil if not disposed of properly.

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ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

1.

gadget — a device or control that is very useful for a particular job device — an instrumentality invented for a particular purpose; «the device is small enough to wear on your wrist»; «a device intended to conserve water» gadgetry — appliances collectively; «laborsaving gadgetry» gimbal — an appliance that allows an object (such as a ship’s compass) to remain horizontal even as its support tips injector — a contrivance for injecting (e.g., water into the boiler of a steam engine or particles into an accelerator etc.) mod con — modern convenience; the appliances and conveniences characteristic of a modern house

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

gadget

noun device, thing, appliance, machine, tool, implement, invention, instrument, novelty, apparatus, gimmick, utensil, contraption (informal), gizmo (slang, chiefly U.S. & Canad.), contrivance a handy gadget for slicing vegetables

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

gadget

noun

A small specialized mechanical device:

The American Heritage® Roget’s Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Translations

Last Updated:
28 Mar 2023
— Updated example sentences