thing
pronunciation
How to pronounce thing in British English:
UK [θɪŋ]
How to pronounce thing in American English:
US [θɪŋ]
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- Noun:
- a special situation
- an action
- an artifact
- an event
- a statement regarded as an object
- any attribute or quality considered as having its own existence
- a special abstraction
- a vaguely specified concern
- an entity that is not named specifically
- a special objective
- a persistent illogical feeling of desire or aversion
- a separate and self-contained entity
Word Origin
- thing
- thing: [OE] The ancestral meaning of thing is ‘time’: it goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *thingam, which was related to Gothic theihs ‘time’, and may come ultimately from the Indo- European base *ten- ‘stretch’ (source of English tend, tense, etc). In Germanic it evolved semantically via ‘appointed time’ to ‘judicial or legislative assembly’.This was the meaning it originally had in English, and it survives in other Germanic languages (the Icelandic parliament is known as the Althing, literally ‘general assembly’). In English, however, it moved on through ‘subject for discussion at such an assembly’ to ‘subject in general, affair, matter’ and finally ‘entity, object’. (The ancient meaning ‘assembly’ is preserved in fossilized form in English husting, etymologically a ‘house assembly’).=> husting
- thing (n.)
- Old English þing "meeting, assembly, council, discussion," later "entity, being, matter" (subject of deliberation in an assembly), also "act, deed, event, material object, body, being, creature," from Proto-Germanic *thingam "assembly" (cognates: Old Frisian thing "assembly, council, suit, matter, thing," Middle Dutch dinc "court-day, suit, plea, concern, affair, thing," Dutch ding "thing," Old High German ding "public assembly for judgment and business, lawsuit," German Ding "affair, matter, thing," Old Norse þing "public assembly"). The Germanic word is perhaps literally "appointed time," from a PIE *tenk- (1), from root *ten- "stretch," perhaps on notion of "stretch of time for a meeting or assembly." The sense "meeting, assembly" did not survive Old English. For sense evolution, compare French chose, Spanish cosa "thing," from Latin causa "judicial process, lawsuit, case;" Latin res "affair, thing," also "case at law, cause." Old sense is preserved in second element of hustings and in Icelandic Althing, the nation's general assembly. Of persons, often pityingly, from late 13c. Used colloquially since c. 1600 to indicate things the speaker can't name at the moment, often with various meaningless suffixes (see thingamajig). Things "personal possessions" is from c. 1300. The thing "what's stylish or fashionable" is recorded from 1762. Phrase do your thing "follow your particular predilection," though associated with hippie-speak of 1960s is attested from 1841.
Synonym
doings operations relations proceedings goings-on dealings business matters concerns affairs work
mania loathing quirk crotchet terror consternation dislike paranoia distaste abomination obsession fixation horror superstition fear trepidation
it animal unit materiality body matter constituent embodiment stuff component blob ingredient anything substance physicality creature particle corporeity block individuality subject building lump entity article monad substantiality object something of being organism solid element corporeality
leaning prejudice weakness fancy bent preference taste liking partiality predisposition predilection tendency
homework charge housework spadework chore errand job mission assignment task duty odd busyness service commission detail
of fact situation incident affairs circumstance events affair event turn course occasion doing matter occurrence hap phenomenon experience conditions happening case state
contrivance widget what's-its-name contraption gizmo the mechanism thingamabob fandangle thingamajig doohickey gadget whatchamacallit dingus gimmick item hand device bird apparatus whatsit in
view intention ultimate aim idea purpose scheme design purport object objective significance goal end intent point implication
Example
- 1. This crisis of meaningless is a relatively new thing .
- 2. This is a wonderful thing .
- 3. Do you really need this thing ?
- 4. But here 's the interesting thing .
- 5. By adding one thing to my purpose nothing .