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I'm trying to find a nice place holder to express 'X country' or 'country X', like 'when telling people that you are from country X...'. The first idea that came into mind was so-and-so:

wiktionary: so-and-so

Noun

so-and-so ‎(plural so-and-sos)

(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.

but 'so-and-so country' or 'country so-and-so' doesn't really work.

'Such-and-such' was my next option, but 'such-and-such country' and 'country such-and-such' both also sound a bit off.

Is there a good placeholder term use with countries (and places)?

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  • You can just say "I'm from so-and-so." The reason "country so-and-so" doesn't work is because no countries have "country" in their name. But you could say something like "United States of So-and-so" or "Republic of So-and-so."
    – DyingIsFun
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 4:57
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    Beware of using "so-and-so" in a British context. Depending on the usage, it can be slightly pejorative. For example, "My sister has just adopted a Turkish Van Kitten who being a little so-and-so. He's ruined the curtains by climbing them." This is a true true story: Turkish Van kittens have famously high energy levels.
    – Nicole
    Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 20:26
  • Such-and-such a country. Your example feels off because it's missing an article.
    – Anonym
    Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 23:00

2 Answers 2

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Just plain "wherever" works in most cases.

She's going on vacation to wherever next month.

Wherever (MW definition 2)

anywhere at all: 'explore northward or wherever' — Bernard De Voto

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Do you want a name that functions in the same way as iconic fictitious towns, like Little Dribbling (from Bill Bryson, UK) or Oodnawoopwoop (Australia)? We use such names in casual conversation when it's not necessary to name a real place.

In a similar way, people may invent obviously placeholder countries on the spot by adding '-istan' or '-aria' or '-onia' to some appropriate root. You can preface with The Democratic Republic of if you want to allude to dictatorships. However, it's in the nature of such inventions that they are rarely neutral in tone, so you must choose your audience wisely.

You just have to make sure you aren't using the real name of an obscure country. There are a few US town names I used to think were humorous fictions before I got GoogleEarth.

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