Undercarriage

It will come as no surprise
          (if you know me at all)
     that I should not be allowed to
give names to things

(although I must admit that with
          three kids and a few
     dogs and cats under my belt
I am not all THAT bad at it)

and that was driven home this morning
          as I struggled to explain that I needed a
     splash shield for my daughter's car
(I Googled it later to see what it was called)

and while my friend (who is a 
          car guy and laughed and laughed)
     knew what I meant, he still rolled
his eyes at "car undercarriage plastic thingy"

Am I really that bad at it?

Aglet? Shoelace thingy
Ferrule? Metal pencil band thingy
Tittle? 'i' and 'j' lowercase dot thingy
Peen? The thingy on the other side of a hammer
Snood? Turkey neck thingy

I am not a lost cause though
         for I do know a few words
     for things that you may not
realize have been named

Petrichor? The smell of rain
Tines? The prongs of a fork
Barm? The foam on your beer
Lemniscate? The symbol for infinity
Defenestrate? To throw out of the window

but would I ever in a million years
          have been able to come up
     with such mental-image-inducing words?
Probably not.

Which reminds me, the word for something
          that produces a mental image is
     anamnesis, but don't ask me how to say it,
that's a battle for another day.