thing

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[edit] English

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[edit] Etymology

From Middle English, from Old English þing (thing), from Proto-Germanic *þingan; compare German Ding, Danish and Norwegian ting. 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 the Latin res, also meaning legal matter. Modern use to refer to a Germanic assembly is likely influenced by cognates (from the same Proto-Germanic root) like Old Norse þing (thing), Swedish ting, and Old High German ding with this meaning.

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

thing (plural things)

  1. That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.
  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) whatever can be owned.
  5. The latest fad or fashion.
  6. (in the plural) clothes, possessions or equipment.
  7. (informal) A unit or container, usually containing edible goods.
    Get me a thing of apple juice at the store.
    I just ate a whole thing of jelly beans.
  8. (informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor.
    The car looks cheap, but the thing is, I have doubts about its safety.
  9. (slang) A penis.
  10. A living being or creature.
    you poor thing
  11. That which matters; the crux.
    That's the thing: we don't know where he went.
    The thing is, I don't have any money.
  12. 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.
  13. (chiefly historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country.
    • 1974, Jón Jóhannesson, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Íslendinga Saga, translated by Haraldur Bessason, 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.

[edit] Quotations

  • 1611 — King James Version of the Bible, 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...
  • 1914, O'Neill, Eugene Gladstone, The Movie Man [playscript].
    Don’t forget to have Gomez postpone that shooting thing. (in reference to the execution of Fernandez).

[edit] Synonyms

[edit] Derived terms

Terms derived from thing

[edit] Related terms

[edit] Translations

a separate entity or concept
any physical or psychical entity
an assembly — see Thing
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

[edit] External links

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Anagrams

[edit] Old Dutch

[edit] Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *þingan.

[edit] Noun

thing n.

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

[edit] Descendants

Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=thing&oldid=16161381"
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