what does it mean

[pine martin]

does anybody know what the saying who ja kapiffy means

[squarebear]

It doesn't mean anything. No-one I know has ever heard of it and neither has Google.

I suspect you have either made it up or it is something extremely local to you.

[Quizmonster]

I've never seen it spelt out, but there is a word used in the dialect of north-east Scotland...hoojakapliff...which is roughly equivalent to 'thingummybob'. That is, a person or a 'doobrie', the name given to some small item the actual name of which the speaker cannot at the moment recall.

[weggiewabbit]

My aunt, who was from the north-east i.e. Durham, used to say something which sounded like �ooh jack a piv� ... I never asked her what it meant! This probably doesn�t help a lot. Try asking a Geordie, or write to the editor of �Viz�.

[Marijn]

I've heard of hoojamaflip, which means "whatsitcalled"

[Narolines]

I think it's usually "oojah-kapivvy", and means "thingamajig" or "whatsitsname". It almost certainly comes from the slang of the British army in India, and may originally have had some kind of sexual connotation in whatever local dialect phrase it was corrupted from (if that makes any sense!).
I'm surprised Squarebear hasn't heard of it (sorry, Squarebear - no offence) as in my experience it, or a variant on it, is a fairly common expression. Maybe it depends which part of the country you're in - though if it's used in NE Scotland ,here in the West Midlands and in the Home Counties (a friend of mine from Middlesex is familiar with it) it must be pretty widespread.

[Narolines]

I should perhaps just point out that that's a double "V" in "k-a-p-i-v-v-y" - looks like a "w" unless you look carefully!

[jno]

oh yes, I'd forgotten Uncle Oojah

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2840/2547/1 600/oojah5.jpg

Anyway, it's in the Cassell dictionary of slang: ooja-ka-piv, oojah capivvy, oojiboo and other spellings, a term used from the 1910s for a whatchamacallit. In the 1920s and 30s, oojah-***-spiff meant all in order. In the 1940s oojah was military slang for sauce or custard. Sounds like a classic case of a word with no meaning at all; but the fact that Uncle Oojah was an elephant does suggest a possible Indian origin as Narolines suggests

[jno]

harrumph. That was oojah-c.u.m-spiff

[kempie]

Is Harrumph also an elephant?

[jno]

a German one, Herr Umf. Now that I look at my Oxford dictionary, it does have oojamaflip, given as a thingumabob.

[Narolines]

Good job the elphant wasn't in the zoo in Chorlton-c*m-Hardy!

[Marijn]

Told you!

[pine martin]

thanks people for the inffo on that one