so-and-so

English

Alternative forms

• so and so

Noun

so-and-so (plural so-and-sos)

1. (idiomatic) A placeholder name for a person or thing, used when a name is not known; a generic name.

   She told me to ask so-and-so, but he didn't know, either.

2. Some thing or things.

   He will tell you to do so-and-so, but read the instructions first, anyway.

3. (euphemistic) Used for epithets such as SOB, bastard, etc..

   That miserable so-and-so messed up my work!

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:whatsaname

Translations

placeholder name

• Arabic: فُلان (ar) (fulān)
• Bashkir: фәлән (fälän), фәлән-төгән (fälän-tӧgän)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 某某 (cmn) (mǒumǒu)

• Finnish: se ja se (fi)
• French: Untel (fr)
• Greek: τάδε (el) (táde) m, f, and n

• Japanese: 何々 (ja) (なになに, naninani)
• Persian: فلان (fa) (folân), بهمان (fa) (bahmân)
• Portuguese: fulano (pt) m, cicrano (pt) m, beltrano (pt) m
• Russian: то-то и то-то (ru) (tó-to i tó-to) n, и то и сё (ru) (i to i sjó) n
• Spanish: fulano (es)

anything generic

• Arabic: فُلان (ar) (fulān)
• Finnish: se ja tämä (fi)
• French: ci et ça (fr)

• German: so und so (de)
• Russian: то-то и то-то (ru) (tó-to i tó-to) n; так-то и так-то (ru) (ták-to i ták-to)

name used to take the place of an epithet

• Finnish: se ja se (fi)
• Polish: taki-owaki (pl)

• Russian: такой-сякой (ru) (takój-sjakój)
• Spanish: tal por cual (es) m and f