What does “un truc” mean in French?

Un truc is what French reaches for when the real word will not come: an object, a task, a vague feeling. Passe-moi le truc, là is “pass me the whatsit,” and j’ai des trucs que j’aime pas is “there are things I don’t like.” It is informal without being rude, and in speech it turns up far more often than the neutral une chose, which reads as flatter and more written.

It heads a small family, each member with its own flavour: un machin for an object whose name has escaped you, un bidule for a gadget you cannot identify at all, and un truc as the broadest of the three. They stretch to people too, once the name has gone — Monsieur Machin is French for “Mr What’s-his-name.”