Gadgets & Gizmos

What makes something a gadget or a gizmo? We use these terms all the time as if we know exactly what they mean. Clearly, a souped up cell phone counts as a gadget. But a gizmo? I don't know. A toy helicopter might count as a gizmo. But a gadget? I don't know.

Some people think that TVs count as gadgets and gizmos...but are they really? Gizmo makes me think of visible moving parts. But TVs don't meet this requirement. Gadgets make me think of complicated toys. TVs have never seemed very complicated to me, but I guess, in a sense, they are.

Computers definitely count as gadgets. But gizmos? I don't know.

But what about a watch? Does a watch count as a gadget? A gizmo? Watches aren't as high tech as the things we typically think of as gadgets and gizmos, but there's a sense in which they the original gadgets, with their cogs and wheels.

Do all artifacts...all human innovations...count as gadgets and gizmos? Does the coffee cup that I'm now drinking out of count? It's not very complicated. But it certainly serves a function. It was an innovation that affects millions of people each day.

I'm not sure that we'll ever have a precise definition of these terms, but one thing we know is that we all love gadgets and gizmos... whatever they are!