Editing Thing (assembly) (section)

==Etymology==
{{Wiktionary pipe|thing}}
The word appears in Old Norse, Old English, and modern [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] as {{lang|non|þing}},{{efn|In ''þing'', ''[[Thorn (letter)|þ]]'' is pronounced as unvoiced "th" [[Voiceless dental fricative|/θ/]].}} in [[Middle English]] (as in [[modern English]]), [[Old Saxon]], [[Old Dutch]], and [[Old Frisian]] as {{lang|enm|thing}} (the difference between ''þing'' and ''thing'' is purely orthographical), in [[German language|German]] as {{lang|de|Ding}}, in [[Dutch language|Dutch]] and [[Afrikaans]] as {{lang|nl|ding}}, and in modern [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Danish language|Danish]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Faroese language|Faroese]], [[Gutnish]], and [[Norn language|Norn]] as {{lang|no|ting}}.<ref name="onlinetymology">Harper ''Online'', s.v. "thing"</ref> The place where a thing was held was called a "thingstead" or "thingstow". An alternative Proto-Germanic form of the word 'thing' was ''*þingsō'', whence Gothic {{lang|got|þeihs}} 'time'. All of these terms derive from  *''þingą'' meaning "appointed time," possibly originating in [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] *''ten-'', "stretch," as in a "stretch of time for an assembly".<ref name="onlinetymology"/>

In English, the term is attested from 685 to 686 in the older meaning "assembly"; later, it referred to a being, entity or matter (sometime before 899), and then also an act, deed, or event (from about 1000). The original sense of "meeting, assembly" did not survive the shift to Middle English.<ref name="Chantrell (ed.)">Chantrell (ed.) ''Oxford'', s.v. "thing".</ref> The meaning of personal possessions, commonly in the plural, first appears in [[Middle English]] around 1300,{{sfnp|Barnhart|1995}} and eventually led to the modern sense of "object". This semantic development from "assembly" to "object" is mirrored in the evolution of the [[Latin]] {{lang|la|causa}} ("judicial lawsuit", "case") to modern [[French language|French]] {{lang|fr|chose}}, [[Spanish language|Spanish]]/[[Italian language|Italian]]/[[Catalan language|Catalan]] {{lang|es|cosa}}, and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] {{lang|pt|coisa}} (all meaning "object" or "thing")<ref name="onlinetymology"/> and the cognate to English ''sake'' (purpose), {{lang|no|sak}} in Norwegian and Swedish, {{lang|da|sag}} in Danish, {{lang|nl|zaak}} in Dutch, {{lang|af|saak}} in Afrikaans, and {{lang|de|Sache}} in German, which in languages like [[Old Norse]] meant "accusation, lawsuit," but today also carries the sense "thing, object".

Today the term lives on in the English term ''[[hustings]]'' and in the names of [[#currInst|national legislatures]] and political and judicial institutions of some Nordic countries (e.g. the Icelandic parliament, the [[Alþing]] and the Norwegian parliament, the Storting) and the [[Isle of Man]] (the [[Tynwald]]).