Which is better -- "scissors-things" or "scissors-thing"?

Question

The other day I loaned an outdoor tool to a friend, and I could not remember what it was called. I asked him, "Would you like to borrow my scissors-things?", showing what I meant.

(I have since learned that this is known as a "lopper". The round thing is known as a "tennis ball" 😉 included for size comparison.)

As I thought about it later, I wondered if I should have said "scissors-thing" instead of "scissors-things". This is colloquial usage to begin with, so there may not be a correct way to say something incorrectly. Non-colloquially, it probably should have been, "my scissors-like thing". Thus I'm thinking "my scissors thing" would have been better. Is there some sort of rule that would handle colloquial usage of this sort when dealing with singular-plural items such as scissors or pants.

Answer 1

Actually, Google Books claims...

a scissor-like device / instrument 36 / 37 hits
a scissors-like device / instrument 3 / 9

...so by extension the natural form for OP's context would a a scissor thing. There's no reason to pluralise things, which would would only have been "justified" by plural scissors anyway.

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Personally, I'd call OP's implement loppers (pluralised in much the same way as scissors, except I'd never refer to a pair of loppers). If I wanted to be a bit more vague, I might say Pass me that lopper thingy (or maybe ...those lopper thingies, but never those loppers things).