thing

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

thing

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• thang (slang, pronunciation spelling, usually used to denote a known fad or popular activity)
• thin' (informal, pronunciation spelling)
• thinge (archaic)
• thynge (obsolete)
• ting (Caribbean creoles, MLE)

Etymology

From Middle English thing, from Old English þing, from Proto-West Germanic *þing, from Proto-Germanic *þingą.

Compare West Frisian ding, Low German Ding, Dutch ding, German Ding, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian ting, Finnish tinki.

The word originally meant "assembly", then came to mean a specific issue discussed at such an assembly, and ultimately came to mean most broadly "an object". Compare Latin rēs, also meaning "legal matter", and same transition from Latin causa (“legal matter”) to "thing" in Romance languages. Modern use to refer to a Germanic assembly is likely influenced by cognates (from the same Proto-Germanic root) like Old Norse þing (“thing”), Danish ting, Swedish ting, and Old High German ding with this meaning.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: thĭng; IPA^(key): /θɪŋ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: thēng; IPA^(key): /θi(ː)ŋ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋ, -iŋ

Noun

thing (plural things)

1. That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Luke 1:1:

     Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us...

   • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 48:

     The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […], "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.

2. A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity.
3. An individual object or distinct entity.
4. (law)
   1. Whatever can be owned.
   2. Corporeal object.
5. (in the plural) Clothes, possessions or equipment.

   Hold on, let me just grab my things.

6. (somewhat dated, with the) The latest fad or fashion.
   • 1802, Anne Ormsby, "Memoirs of a Family in Swisserland", quoted in The Monthly Review, Or, Literary Journal page 45:

     To go to bed late, to rise late, to breakfast late, to dine late, and to visit late, is to be “quite the thing,” or in good English, which you may understand better than the first phrase, to be in the fashion.

   • 2002, Roger Nichols, The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris 1917-1929, Univ of California Press, →ISBN:

     After a slow start it became the thing to do; 'everyone went to see Pbi-Pbi, no one talked of anything but Pbi-Pbi […] '

7. (informal) A custom or practice.

   Cheek kissing is a French thing; you get used to it after a while.

9. (informal) A genuine concept, entity or phenomenon; something that actually exists (often contrary to expectation or belief).

   Bacon pie? Is that a thing?

   • 1993 November 24, The Rush Limbaugh Show (radio), Rush Limbaugh (actor):

     Now I don't know how many of those male flight attendants are male lesbians -- you know... (Laughter) Well, it's a thing. I mean, there's a -- it's a -- there's a feminist professor down in Tampa who's discovered a male lesbian

     Accessed via COCA

   • 2014, Marianna Papastephanou, Torill Strand, Anne Pirrie, Philosophy as a Lived Experience:

     Frequent statements of the kind “'Race' is not a thing”, “'races,' put simply, do not exist”, “'race' (as each essay subtly shows) simply does not exist” aim to discredit Todorov's claim that a relapse to an ontology of race is at place […]

   • 2014, Harper Lin, Croissant Murder:

     Clémence would say that his style was normcore before normcore became a thing. She had to admit that she still found him attractive.

   • 2019, Adam Gopnik, A Thousand Small Sanities, Riverrun, published 2019, page 88:

     Conservative philosophy, in other words, is, as we say now, a thing and deserves a serious listen.

10. (informal) A unit or container, usually containing consumable goods.

    Could you get me a thing of apple juice at the store?

    I just ate a whole thing of jelly beans.

    • 1998 March 24, Geraldo (television):

      And he invited us all in there and then he kicked the girls out a little bit later and brought me in a couple things of alcohol. And just before he brought in my second bottle of alcohol […]

      Accessed via COCA

    • 2011, 1:19:48 from the start, in We Were Here:

      I remember my friend Ben saying in the old days that he would never go to Costco and buy one of those big things of toilet paper […]

      Accessed via COCA

    • 2011, Juliette Fay, Deep Down True: A Novel, Penguin, →ISBN:

      I came home and ate a whole thing of ice cream.

11. (informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor; the crux.

    The car looks cheap, but the thing is, I have doubts about its safety.

12. (informal) The central point; the crux.

    That's the thing: we don't know where he is.

13. (slang) A penis.
    • 1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 150:

      “Oh Gertie it’s true. It’s all true. They’ve got a horrid gash instead of a thrilling thing.”

14. A living being or creature.

    you poor thing

    sweet young thing

    she's a funny old thing, but her heart's in the right place

    I met a pretty blond thing at the bar

15. Used after a noun to refer dismissively to the situation surrounding the noun's referent.

    Oh yeah, I'm supposed to promote that vision thing.

    • 1914, Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, The Movie Man :

      Don’t forget to have Gomez postpone that shooting thing. (in reference to the execution of Fernandez)

16. (informal, used possessively) That which is favoured; personal preference.

    it's not really my thing

    • 2002, Joss Whedon et al, "Never Leave Me", Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV episode):

      Tool talk [is] not my thing.

    • 2006, Corbin Bleu, interview with Tigerbeat magazine:

      The Internet isn't my thing. I so much rather talk on the phone.

17. (informal, used possessively, with "do") One's typical routine, habits, or manner.

    let me do my thing;  I'm here doing my thing

    • 2006, David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish, Tarcher 2006, "Darkness", p. 91:

      But I'm just a guy from Missoula, Montana, doing my thing, going down the road like everybody else.

18. (chiefly historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country.
    • 1974, Jón Jóhannesson, translated by Haraldur Bessason, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Íslendinga Saga, page 46:

      In accordance with Old Germanic custom men came to the thing fully armed, [...]

    • 1974, Jakob Benediktsson, Landnám og upphaf allsherjarríkis, in Saga Íslands, quoted in 1988 by Jesse L. Byock in Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power, page 85:

      The goðar seem both to have received payment of thing-fararkaup from those who stayed home and at the same time compensated those who went to the thing, and it cannot be seen whether they had any profit from these transactions.

    • 1988, Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power, page 59:

      All Icelandic things were skap-thing, meaning that they were governed by established procedure and met at regular legally designated intevals at predetermined meeting places.

19. (informal) A romantic relationship.
    • 2020, David Gomadza, EVELINA: The Alpha:

      I can screw you in front of everyone. I don't care, we have a thing going on, you know. I love you,” she said.

20. (informal) A romantic couple.

    Are John and Jennifer a thing again? I thought they broke up.

21. (MLE) Alternative form of ting.
22. (MLE) Girl; attractive woman.

    Look at the nyash on that thing!

Synonyms

• (referent that can be used to refer to any entity): item, stuff (uncountable equivalent), yoke (Ireland)
• (penis): see Thesaurus:penis
• (personal preference): see Thesaurus:predilection

Derived terms

Related terms

• diminutives: thingy / thingie, thingo

Translations

Further reading

• “thing”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “thing”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Verb

thing (third-person singular simple present things, present participle thinging, simple past and past participle thinged)

1. (rare) To express as a thing; to reify.

Anagrams

• Night, night

Khumi Chin

Etymology

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *thiŋ, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *siŋ. Cognates include Mizo thing and Zou sing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʰĩ˥/

Noun

thing

1. firewood

References

• K. E. Herr (2011) The phonological interpretation of minor syllables, applied to Lemi Chin‎, Payap University, page 44

Middle English

Alternative forms

• thinge, thyng

Etymology

From Old English þing, from Proto-West Germanic *þing, from Proto-Germanic *þingą.

Noun

thing (plural thinges)

1. thing

Descendants

• English: thing
• Scots: thing, ting, hing
• Yola: dhing

References

• “thing, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Mizo

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *siŋ. Akin to Khumi Chin thing.

Noun

thing

1. tree
2. wood
3. firewood

References

• Matisoff, James A., Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman, University of California Press.

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *þing.

Noun

thing n

1. thing, object
2. case, matter, issue

Inflection

head=thing

Descendants

• Middle Dutch: dinc
  • Dutch: ding
    • Afrikaans: ding
    • Berbice Creole Dutch: dinggi
    • Jersey Dutch: däng
  • Limburgish: dink, ding

Further reading

• “think”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

Old High German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ðinɡ/

Noun

thing

1. Alternative form of ding

Declension

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *þing. Compare Old Dutch thing, Old Frisian thing, Old English þing, Old High German ding, Old Norse þing.

Noun

thing n

1. thing, object
2. matter, case

Declension

head=thing

Descendants

• Middle Low German: dink
  • German Low German: Ding
  • Plautdietsch: Dinkj