thing

来自古英语 thing,会议，集会，讨论会，来自 Proto-Germanic*thingam,集会，词源同 hustings, 竞选活动。可能进一步来自 PIE*teng,思考，考虑，词源同 thank,think.复合词 hustings 来自 古英语 husting,会议，来自 house,屋子，thing,集会。后词义由会议引申为讨论的内容，最后 词义极大的扩大化，引申诸多具体和抽象的词义。

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.

1. The best thing to do when entering unknown territory is smile.

踏入未知地带最好的对策就是微笑。

2. "One thing you can never insure against is corruption among your staff."—"Agreed."

“永远也防不胜防的就是员工内部的贪污腐败。”——“同意。”

3. The most amazing thing about nature is its infinite variety.

大自然最让人惊叹的是它的无限多样性。

4. He hadn't eaten a thing except for one forkful of salad.

除了一餐叉色拉，他什么都没吃。

5. I would be remiss if I did not do some-thing about it.

如果我对此不做点儿什么，就是不负责任。