{"id":3913,"date":"2025-05-17T15:53:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T15:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?p=3913"},"modified":"2025-05-17T16:19:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T16:19:30","slug":"adventures-in-etymology-an-assembly-of-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?p=3913","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in Etymology &#8211; An Assembly of Things"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/AudioObject\"><meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Adventures in Etymology &amp;#8211; An Assembly of Things\" \/><meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2025-05-17T15:53:54+00:00\" \/><meta itemprop=\"encodingFormat\" content=\"audio\/mpeg\" \/><meta itemprop=\"duration\" content=\"PT2M26S\" \/><meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"This Adventure in Etymology is an assembly of words about the word thing, or something like that.\n\n\n\nMeanings of thing [\u03b8\u026a\u014b] include:\n\n\n  That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.\n  A word, symbol, sign, or o...\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/thing.mp3\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentSize\" content=\"2.6\" \/><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_3229\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3913-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/thing.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/thing.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/thing.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/thing.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?powerpress_pinw=3913-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/thing.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"thing.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p>This Adventure in Etymology is an assembly of words about the word <strong>thing<\/strong>, or something like that.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/charminglydaft\/1357181099\/in\/photolist-34VUE8-L3GTtZ-zTBcC-2i1M67f-cxFBzQ-78wBRG-EvyY8-cSkFZQ-5i5A-rpBZsX-2nnUCPu-62Kqyn-nPjpim-74p3sr-2nnuEp9-nUM2Ny-2msNFEK-58mAsb-2h3g1qX-2nnrmPc-57sEvA-8T5bZH-cSkCGd-iJzESQ-dmpbvA-cSkJzy-byP3uZ-7qZvUq-2pFVafT-8T1DuA-VjiszG-nxDrpu-d333r1-9SHoZQ-pee8g4-4UqH1W-5sRcvb-4Umxzr-8T8cHN-2nnxbKD-5JHd3W-nVz9RF-gkypdj-nxZxD3-cSkHwf-48GVbJ-nQPMi9-PSacMr-87sBzx-ovfoXK\" title=\"Pointless things?\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/1139\/1357181099_f94e72e666_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"Pointless things?\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Meanings of <strong>thing<\/strong> [\u03b8\u026a\u014b] include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.<\/li>\n<li>A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity.<\/li>\n<li>An individual object or distinct entity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It comes from Middle English <em>thing<\/em> (thing, substance, object), from Old English <em>\u00feing<\/em> (thing, matter, concern, event, meeting, court, case, reason, means), from Proto-West Germanic <em>*\u00feing<\/em> (court, session, lawsuit, affair, matter, thing, object) from Proto-Germanic <em>*\u00feing\u0105<\/em> (time, date, meeting, assembly, council, case, matter, issue), from Proto-Indo-European <em>*tenk-\u00f3-<\/em>, from <em>*tenk-<\/em> (to be suitable) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/thing#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>So, its meaning changed from being suitable, to a suitable or scheduled time, to an assembly, to a specific issue discussed at an assembly, to issues, objects or things in general. Which is quite something.<\/p>\n<p>There are related words in other Germanic languages that also mean <strong>thing<\/strong>, and other things. For example, <strong>ding<\/strong> (matter, thing) in Dutch [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/ding#Dutch\">source<\/a>] (and Afrikaans), <strong>Ding<\/strong> (thing, girl, boy) in German [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Ding#German\">source<\/a>], and <stong>D\u00e9ngen<\/strong> (thing, object) in Luxembourgish [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/D%C3%A9ngen#Luxembourgish\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/emptyseas\/39071051964\/in\/photolist-22wzmwY-2kVCSmh-8o65ot-t15PQz-vJhZnC-w1h1jC-8FAFkY-vXAJpv-2mbzPaj-vEHmix-5AzQDP-8FwQQH-6prTGx-2mhLRjv-5R2A1x-XsLqAH-6prTGp-5SnUGA-2n23BVR-8Pcbfp-e51tfF-6TpakJ-6prTFF-2n5Hmoy-7KyQZ3-6prTFR-cF1t73-sqtcJ1-4Hr3rS-2h2Dm3K-4ZfX-8LJ8RM-6DYpKm-FfJzsz-qfDRBe-nGNHM7-4ws2zd-2hZXvxw-9TJkmB-a9DzcZ-Zu9hyr-SFLPVQ-2qLdRRM-4bTgpy-5Wu6Bf-9eVLQF-2qLipV2-a6nfBK-awX5nC-2hHHMRN\" title=\"The Al\u00feingi\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/4759\/39071051964_4cfd15ca65_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" alt=\"The Al\u00feingi\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<em>The Al\u00feingi<\/em><\/p>\n<p>However, in Norwegian, <strong>ting<\/strong> can mean thing, court or assembly [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/ting#Norwegian_Bokm%C3%A5l\">source<\/a>], <strong>ting<\/strong> means thing, assembly or parliament in Danish [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/ting#Norwegian_Bokm%C3%A5l\">source<\/a>], and <strong>\u00feing<\/strong> means assembly, meeting, council or parliament in Icelandic, and the parliament of Iceland is called the <strong>Al\u00feingi<\/strong> &#8211; see above [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%C3%BEing#Icelandic\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Other words from the same roots include <strong>tinka<\/strong> (quarrel, disagreement, shortage, lack, tight situation) in Finnish, <strong>tinge<\/strong> (to bargin, haggle) in Danish, <strong>\u00feinga<\/strong> (to hold a meeting) in Icelandic, <strong>dungi<\/strong> (to employ) in Esperanto, and <strong>gedeihen<\/strong> (to thrive, flourish, prosper) in German [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic\/%C3%BEing%C4%85\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>You can also listen to this podcast on: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/gb\/podcast\/radio-omniglot\/id1432641094\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/podcasts\/8b1b1d1b-b39e-4277-b28d-479a3b5043b3\/radio-omniglot\">Amazon Music<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/podcasts\/Education-Podcasts\/Radio-Omniglot-p1154145\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.podchaser.com\/podcasts\/radio-omniglot-716327\">Podchaser<\/a>, <a href=\"<a href=\"https:\/\/podbay.fm\/p\/radio-omniglot\">Podbay<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/podtail.com\/da\/podcast\/radio-omniglot\/\">Podtail<\/a> and other pod places.<\/p>\n<p>The theme tune for this podcast is <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/simon-ager\/the-unexpected-badger\">The Unexpected Badger \/ Y Mochyn Daear Annisgwyl<\/a>, a piece I wrote and recorded in 2017.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/339162597&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/simon-ager\" title=\"Simon Ager\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\">Simon Ager<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/simon-ager\/the-unexpected-badger\" title=\"The Unexpected Badger \/ Y Mochyn Daear Annisgwyl\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\">The Unexpected Badger \/ Y Mochyn Daear Annisgwyl<\/a><\/div>\n<p>If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/uk\/cgi-bin\/webscr?cmd=_flow&amp;SESSION=aLjPfXL-vP_1gQ_U23Iz8_hSWLlhzLHPMFZrt32dIEfG8htoNFLYaPoWkv8&amp;dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8def8934b92a630e40b7fef61ab7e9fe63\">PayPal<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/omniglot\">Patreon<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/donations.htm\">contribute to Omniglot in other ways<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Radio Omniglot podcasts are brought to you in association with <a href=\"https:\/\/blubrry.com\/services\/podcast-hosting\/?code=omniglot\">Blubrry Podcast Hosting<\/a>, a great place to host your podcasts. Get your first month free with the promo code <strong>omniglot<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I also write about words, etymology and other language-related topics on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/\">Omniglot Blog<\/a>, and I explore etymological connections between Celtic languages on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/\">Celtiadur<\/a> blog.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/AudioObject\"><meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Adventures in Etymology &amp;#8211; An Assembly of Things\" \/><meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2025-05-17T15:53:54+00:00\" \/><meta itemprop=\"encodingFormat\" content=\"audio\/mpeg\" \/><meta itemprop=\"duration\" content=\"PT2M26S\" \/><meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"This Adventure in Etymology is an assembly of words about the word thing, or something like that.\n\n\n\nMeanings of thing [\u03b8\u026a\u014b] include:\n\n\n  That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.\n  A word, symbol, sign, or o...\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/thing.mp3\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentSize\" content=\"2.6\" \/><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_3230\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3913-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/thing.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/thing.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/thing.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/thing.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?powerpress_pinw=3913-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/thing.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"thing.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p>This Adventure in Etymology is an assembly of words about the word thing, or something like that. Meanings of thing [\u03b8\u026a\u014b] include: That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept. A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity. An individual object [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,42,31,47,20,39,56,125,24,29,4,53,58,11,84,55,1,57,59,119],"tags":[241,222,90,9,167,15,88,8,239,240,103],"class_list":["post-3913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-etymology","category-afrikaans","category-danish","category-dutch","category-english","category-esperanto","category-etymology","category-finnish-suomi","category-german","category-icelandic","category-language","category-luxembourgish-letzebuergesch","category-middle-english","category-music","category-norwegian-norsk","category-old-english-aenglisc","category-podcast","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","category-proto-west-germanic","tag-ding","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-language","tag-linguistics","tag-music","tag-omniglot","tag-podcast","tag-thing","tag-ting","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3913"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3917,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913\/revisions\/3917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}