different between thing vs quantity
thing
English
Alternative forms
- thang (slang, pronunciation spelling, usually used to denote a known fad or popular activity)
- thin' (informal, pronunciation spelling)
- thinge (archaic)
- thynge (obsolete)
- ting (Caribbean creoles, MLE)
Etymology
From Middle English thing, from Old English þing, from Proto-Germanic *þing?; 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 r?s, 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”), Swedish ting, and Old High German ding with this meaning.
Pronunciation
- enPR: th?ng, IPA(key): /???/
- Rhymes: -??
Noun
thing (plural things)
- That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.
- 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...
- 1611 — King James Version of the Bible, Luke 1:1
- A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity.
- An individual object or distinct entity.
- (informal) A genuine concept, entity or phenomenon; something that actually exists (often contrary to expectation or belief). [from 20th c.]
- 2014, Marianna Papastephanou, Torill Strand, Anne Pirrie, Philosophy as a Lived Experience
- 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 […]
- 2019, Adam Gopnik, A Thousand Small Sanities, Riverrun 2019, p. 88:
- Conservative philosophy, in other words, is, as we say now, a thing and deserves a serious listen.
- 2014, Marianna Papastephanou, Torill Strand, Anne Pirrie, Philosophy as a Lived Experience
- (law)
- Whatever can be owned.
- Corporeal object.
- (somewhat dated, with the) The latest fad or fashion.
- 1802, Anne Ormsby, "Memoirs of a Family in Swisserland", quoted in The Monthly Review, Or, Literary Journal page 45:
- 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.
- 2002, Roger Nichols, The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris 1917-1929, Univ of California Press (?ISBN)
- After a slow start it became the thing to do; 'everyone went to see Pbi-Pbi, no one talked of anything but Pbi-Pbi […] '
- 1802, Anne Ormsby, "Memoirs of a Family in Swisserland", quoted in The Monthly Review, Or, Literary Journal page 45:
- (in the plural) Clothes, possessions or equipment.
- (informal) A unit or container, usually containing edible goods.
- 2011, Juliette Fay, Deep Down True: A Novel, Penguin (?ISBN)
- I came home and ate a whole thing of ice cream.
- 2011, Juliette Fay, Deep Down True: A Novel, Penguin (?ISBN)
- (informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor.
- (slang) A penis.
- 1959, William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, 50th anniversary edition (2009), p. 126:
- “Oh Gertie it’s true. It’s all true. They’ve got a horrid gash instead of a thrilling thing.”
- 1959, William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, 50th anniversary edition (2009), p. 126:
- A living being or creature.
- That which matters; the crux.
- Used after a noun to refer dismissively to the situation surrounding the noun's referent.
- 1914, Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, The Movie Man [playscript]:
- 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]:
- (informal) That which is favoured; personal preference. (Used in possessive constructions.)
- (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.
- 1974, Jón Jóhannesson, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Íslendinga Saga, translated by Haraldur Bessason, page 46:
- (informal) A romantic relationship.
Synonyms
- (referent that can be used to refer to any entity): item, stuff (uncountable equivalent), yoke (Ireland)
- (penis): see Thesaurus:penis
- (personal preference): see Thesaurus:predilection
Derived terms
Related terms
- diminutives: thingy / thingie, thingo [Aus]
Translations
Further reading
- thing in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- thing in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Verb
thing (third-person singular simple present things, present participle thinging, simple past and past participle thinged)
- (rare) To express as a thing; to reify.
Anagrams
- Night, night
Khumi Chin
Etymology
From Proto-Kuki-Chin *thi?, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *si?. Cognates include Mizo thing and Zou sing.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /t???/
Noun
thing
- firewood
References
- K. E. Herr (2011) The phonological interpretation of minor syllables, applied to Lemi Chin?[1], Payap University, page 44
Middle English
Alternative forms
- thinge, ðhing
Etymology
From Old English þing, from Proto-West Germanic *þing.
Noun
thing (plural thinges)
- thing
Descendants
- English: thing
- Scots: thing, ting, hing
- Yola: dhing
References
- “thing, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Mizo
Etymology
From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *si?. Akin to Khumi Chin thing.
Noun
thing
- tree
- wood
- firewood
References
- Matisoff, James A., Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman, University of California Press.
Old Dutch
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *þing?.
Noun
thing n
- thing, object
- case, matter, issue
Inflection
Descendants
- Middle Dutch: dinc
- Dutch: ding
- Afrikaans: ding
- Limburgish: dink, ding
- Dutch: ding
Further reading
- “think”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012
Old High German
Alternative forms
- ding, dink
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *þing?
Noun
thing n
- thing, object
- matter, case
Declension
Descendants
- Middle High German: ding
- Cimbrian: ding
- German: Ding
- Luxembourgish: Déngen
- Pennsylvania German: Ding
Old Saxon
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *þing. Compare Old Dutch thing, Old Frisian thing, Old English þing, Old High German ding, Old Norse þing.
Noun
thing n
- thing, object
- matter, case
Declension
Descendants
- Middle Low German: dink
- German Low German: Ding
- Plautdietsch: Dinkj
thing From the web:
- what things are blue
- what things are purple
- what things happened in 2020
- what things are red
- what things are orange
- what things have gluten
- what things can be recycled
- what things are magnetic
quantity
English
Etymology
From Middle English quantite, from Old French quantité, from Latin quantit?s (“quantity”), from quantus (“how much”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /?kw?n.t?.ti/
- (General American) enPR: kw?n?(t)?t?, IPA(key): /?kw?n(t)?ti/, [?k?w?n(?)??i], [?k?w?n(t?)?t?i]
- Note: This is with a relaxed middle T, and is only used in colloquial contexts by many speakers.
- (Canada) IPA(key): /?kw?nd?di/, /?kw?n???i/
- (obsolete) IPA(key): /?kwæn.t?.ti/
Noun
quantity (countable and uncountable, plural quantities)
- A fundamental, generic term used when referring to the measurement (count, amount) of a scalar, vector, number of items or to some other way of denominating the value of a collection or group of items.
- An indefinite amount of something.
- Some soap making oils are best as base oils, used in a larger quantity in the soap, while other oils are best added in a small quantity.
- A specific measured amount.
- A considerable measure or amount.
- (metrology) Property of a phenomenon, body, or substance, where the property has a magnitude that can be expressed as number and a reference.
- (mathematics) Indicates that the entire preceding expression is henceforth considered a single object.
- 2006, Jerome E. Kaufmann and Karen Schwitters, Elementary and Intermediate Algebra: A Combined Approach, p 89
- For problems 58-67, translate each word phrase into an algebraic expression. […] 65. x plus 9, the quantity squared
- 2005, R. Mark Sirkin, Statistics For The Social Sciences, p137
- The second, , read "summation of x, quantity squared," tells us to first add up all the xs to get and then square to get .
- 1985, Serge Lang, Math!: Encounters with High School Students, p54
- ANN. quantity cubed.
- SERGE LANG. That's right, .
- 2006, Jerome E. Kaufmann and Karen Schwitters, Elementary and Intermediate Algebra: A Combined Approach, p 89
Usage notes
- In mathematics, used to unambiguously orate mathematical equations; it is extremely rare in print, since there is no need for it there.
Synonyms
- Qty
Derived terms
- unknown quantity
Related terms
Translations
See also
- measure
- unit
Further reading
- quantity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- quantity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- quantity at OneLook Dictionary Search
quantity From the web:
- what quantity relates to the stiffness of a spring
- what quantity is directly measured in a titration
- what quantity mean
- what quantity changes when a solution is diluted
- what quantity is a vector
- what quantity does the data represent
- what quantity is represented by the symbol j
- what quantity dictates the speed of a reaction
you may also like
- thing vs quantity
- snick vs damage
- guarded vs restricted
- yokel vs moron
- procreate vs increase
- disturb vs bully
- airy vs gay
- enormous vs capacious
- noticeably vs sizeably
- distinction vs seriousness
- anaemic vs ghostlike
- incline vs induce
- space vs interruption
- reinvigorated vs rebuilt
- law vs element
- alter vs reduce
- changeable vs aberrant
- inadequate vs slender
- disturb vs torment
- rude vs bumptious