anything

Etymology 1

From Middle English anything, enything, onything, from Late Old English aniþing, from earlier ǣniġ þing (literally “any thing”), equivalent to any + thing.

pron

1. Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatever; a thing of any kind; something or other.
   I would not do it for anything.
   In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. 2013-05-25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74
2. (with “as” or “like”) Expressing an indefinite comparison.
   Perhaps it was this atmosphere of misplacedness and loneliness as much as anything which led her to speak to him one evening in early summer when the office had closed. 1916, Edward S. Moffat, Go Forth and Find, pages 81–82

noun

1. Someone or something of importance.
   How long does it take to turn you actors into good anythings? 1986, David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
   So we tried not to talk about first or second anythings until our meeting with the rabbi. May 6, 2007, Cindy Chupack, “An Ancient Coda to My 21st-Century Divorce”, in New York Times

Etymology 2

From Middle English anything, enything, onything, onythynge, from Old English ǣniġe þinga, ǣnġi þinga (literally “by any of things”), from ǣniġe, instrumental form of ǣniġ (“any”) + þinga, genitive plural of þing (“thing”).

adv

1. In any way, any extent or any degree.
   That isn't anything like a car.
   She's not anything like as strong as me.