2200: thing Dec 23, 2020

The Icelandic parliament is called the Alþingi, sometimes anglicized as 'Althing' can illuminate some of the function of 'thing' in English. In this case the word is from the Old Norse 'al-' (general) and 'þing / thing' meaning 'assembly'. While this precise meaning has been lost in English it is still present in other Germanic languages like Danish/Swedish/Norwegian 'ting', the German 'Thing' and so on. Still, the modern sense in English comes from this root, and once referred to the meeting, and then later the matter discussed in a meeting, and then just any general matter; this process happened elsewhere as with the German 'Ding'.