thing

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. 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.

noun

1. That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.
   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. 2013-06-21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 48
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.
   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. 1802, Anne Ormsby, "Memoirs of a Family in Swisserland", quoted in The Monthly Review, Or, Literary Journal page 45
   After a slow start it became the thing to do; 'everyone went to see Pbi-Pbi, no one talked of anything but Pbi-Pbi[…]' 2002, Roger Nichols, The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris 1917-1929, Univ of California Press
7. (informal) A custom or practice.
   Cheek kissing is a French thing; you get used to it after a while.
8. (informal) A genuine concept, entity or phenomenon; something that actually exists (often contrary to expectation or belief).
   Bacon pie? Is that a thing?
   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 24 November 1993, The Rush Limbaugh Show (radio), Rush Limbaugh (actor)
   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, Marianna Papastephanou, Torill Strand, Anne Pirrie, Philosophy as a Lived Experience
   Clémence would say that his style was normcore before normcore became a thing. She had to admit that she still found him attractive. 2014, Harper Lin, Croissant Murder
   Conservative philosophy, in other words, is, as we say now, a thing and deserves a serious listen. 2019, Adam Gopnik, A Thousand Small Sanities, Riverrun, published 2019, page 88
9. (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.
   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[…] 24 March 1998, Geraldo (television)
   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[…] 2011, 1:19:48 from the start, in We Were Here
   I came home and ate a whole thing of ice cream. 2011, Juliette Fay, Deep Down True: A Novel, Penguin
10. (informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor; the crux.
    The car looks cheap, but the thing is, I have doubts about its safety.
11. (informal) The central point; the crux.
    That's the thing: we don't know where he is.
12. (slang) A penis.
13. 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
14. 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.
    Don’t forget to have Gomez postpone that shooting thing. (in reference to the execution of Fernandez) 1914, Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, The Movie Man [playscript]
15. (informal, used possessively) That which is favoured; personal preference.
    it's not really my thing
    Tool talk [is] not my thing. 2002, Joss Whedon et al, "Never Leave Me", Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV episode)
    The Internet isn't my thing. I so much rather talk on the phone. 2006, Corbin Bleu, interview with Tigerbeat magazine
16. (informal, used possessively, with "do") One's typical routine, habits, or manner.
    let me do my thing; I'm here doing my thing
    But I'm just a guy from Missoula, Montana, doing my thing, going down the road like everybody else. 2006, David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish, Tarcher 2006, "Darkness", p. 91
17. (chiefly historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country.
    In accordance with Old Germanic custom men came to the thing fully armed, … 1974, Jón Jóhannesson, translated by Haraldur Bessason, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Íslendinga Saga, page 46
    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. 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
    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. 1988, Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power, page 59
18. (informal) A romantic relationship.
    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. 2020, David Gomadza, EVELINA: The Alpha
19. (informal) A romantic couple.
    Are John and Jennifer a thing again? I thought they broke up.
20. (MLE) Alternate form of ting.
21. (MLE) Girl; attractive woman.
    Look at the nyash on that thing!

verb

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