In Teko (Tupi-Guarani, French Guiana), the word used when searching for a word is baʔe. This talk will discuss its behavior and use in this function, in order to determine whether it could be considered as a plain filler or as a placeholder. This term is obviously related to the noun baʔe ‘thing’, which is found throughout the Tupi-Guarani branch, and has grammaticalized in many ways. Within this diachronic perspective, this talk will therefore discuss the pragmaticalization of baʔe as a discourse marker.