What do you call it?

In my family, we called the TV remote a tweekie – I suspect the word came from one of the sci-fi programmes my mother loved to watch.

My ex’s family called theirs a hoofer-doofer which I long believed was some form of regional anachronism, my ex’s family having originated from the north of England in the county of Yorkshire (referred to by those who came from there as “God’s own country” 😉 ). But, apparently not. It turns out the second part of it is a variation of the term ‘do for’ and appeared in a dictionary with the doofer spelling in 1937. The first part is slang for a dancer, but no suggestion has been offered as to what that’s to do with a TV remote! My ex called it a sponner, because apparently you ‘spon’ with it🤨 leading me to suspect it was a word he made up.

Words like clicker, zapper, changer all make sense, as do buttons and gadget and gizmo. Even the fat controller (which made me laugh) is not complete nonsense, being the sort of thing us Brits love, it being a character in a much loved UK TV children’s programme (Thomas the Tank Engine). One term which is described as ‘rare’ but I could see where it came from was oner-offer – but plonker, frank, the mote and the trolls? Nope, they make no sense to me at all.

I don’t know if it’s a particularly British thing, but the UK TV License authority did a survey and came up with over 100 words for the TV remote, with a vast regional differences. I say ‘particularly British thing’ for there’s that whole Boaty McBoatface saga, when the great British public was asked to name a new new polar research ship, and that’s the name which won by a clear margin. The National Oceanographic Centre decided to ignore the result and named it after Sir David Attenborough instead, which anyone with a modicum of common sense would’ve seen was the obvious choice, and not asked the aforementioned great British public to get involved 😉

When I say it was entirely obvious that the great British public would be both daft and funny in this enterprise, let me share with you that in Scotland snow gritters are also named. Picked out of a long list I offer you: I Came, I Thawed, I Conquered, together with a couple of James Bond references in For Your Ice Only and Licence to Chill, as well as Snow Connery for the man himself. Other celebrity inspired names are Keanu Freeze, Polar Abdul and Taylor Drift. But my personal favourites (currently, for they add new ones every year) are Snowey Tribbiani and Snowing Me, Snowing You.

As I’m terribly boring and just call it the remote… may I ask, what do you call it? Are there similar regional differences in naming practices where you live? Oh and are your snow ploughs named?

© Debs Carey, 2025

24 thoughts on “What do you call it?”

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  1. I’m also boring and call it the remote. I don’t know if we name snow plows but in Baltimore we have the trash wheel family – Baltimore’s Mr. Trash Wheel Family is made up of four devices: Mr. Trash Wheel (2014), Professor Trash Wheel (2016), Captain Trash Wheel (2018), and Gwynnda the Good Wheel of the West (2021).

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  5. When my daughter was just a toddler, she mispronounced it, calling it the merote. To this day (my daughter is 30), my husband and I refer to it as the merote, we just thought it was so cute!

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  6. Jane, when I asked Himself what he called it, he looked at me like I was utterly daft 😀 Clearly there is a goodly group of people who don’t feel called to name their remotes.

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  8. Oh that is adorable! I’ve a few like that which my daughter mis-named – my favourite is Parrots Grotty for the opera singer Pavarotti 🙂

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  9. I’ve lived all over the US and I think the only variation from “remote” I’ve ever heard is “clicker.” I’m guessing a snow gritter is a snow plow in the US. My favorite plow nickname comes from Arlington, Virginia: “Control-Salt-Delete.”

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  10. This is just a guess, but it seems that the British have more funny nicknames for things than most people.

    The remote? My mom used to call it the clicker. I just call it the remote. We don’t have much snow here in Seattle, so we just talk about snow plows and salting and plowing the roads, and how if we can, we’re going to stay home until it’s over. We have too many hills, many of them steep, so driving can be treacherous.

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  12. Nicki, we have very little snow in our part of the UK, hence why I’ve only recently discovered about Scottish snow ploughs. Like you, I tend to stay home whenever possible on those rare occasions when it does snow heavily here. I think you’re right about the British and funny nicknames – because I didn’t grow up with it, I’m late to realising it.

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  13. We call it the Remote, sometimes pronounced as ray-mote-ta as if we’re speaking a foreign language. Our snow throw is Helen, because she is Troy brand. You see the logic, yes?

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  14. Clicker is popular in the Midwest. I refer to it as the Magic Device That Entertains And Amuses By Transporting Me To An Alternate Reality Without Using Wires, but friends and family always look at me funny whenever that comes spilling out.

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  18. I mostly call it the remote, though I’m pretty sure we’ve referred to it as the clicker within my family. Still, In like slang generally. It’s funny to hear another country’s slangs and idioms, or even regionally around here.

    Some of my favorites:

    He’s slow as mud runnin’ up a hill.

    Oh for cryin’ in a cow yard!

    That’s like buttin’ a stump.

    It’s raining pitchforks and hammer handles!

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  20. Those are hilarious Zazzy – the last one especiallly. We’ve had one of those named storms overnight and I believe what I heard this morning was most decidedly pitchforks and hammer handles!

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  21. I’m not boring, I hope, but I call it the clicker or the remote. I guess if I was trying to be unboring I would call it the whatchamacallit or the doohickie. When I was stationed in Germany I learned a German word for Whatnot, Dingsbums.

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  22. Hello Earl, glad to meet another member of the “call it remote” club. I’d not heard that German word before – it’s excellent, I shall try to remember it and to use it!

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  23. I enjoyed reading about nicknames for the remote control. We are boring and call ours the remote, but occasionally I refer to it as The Power, as in, “You decide, you have the power,” when trying to decide what to watch. Our state also names it snowplows (chosen through contests). Some of my favorites are Sled Zeppelin, No More Mister Ice Guy, and Flake Effect. (We get a lot of lake effect snow.)

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  24. Oh Christie, I missed your response – damn WPress for not sending me notifications.

    The Power is perfect 😀 Himself likes to have The Power. I am occasionally allowed – but only when watching rugby on TV, when he takes himself off to the kitchen and laughs at my outbursts, my “advice” to the referee, let alone the excited celebrating when any of “my boys” do well which could raise the dead (apparently).

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