[see bottom for Everything]* Interestingly: "thing" - I always
wanted to know that one and now I do:
A meeting/ assembly = thing = meeting/assembly. That is
absolutely fascinating to me right now. A "thing" is a meeting /
assembly / discussion / council.
Councils deliberate, telling stories to one another, comparing
one story with another story, with the hope of coming to an
agreement or at least a mutual understanding.
But it is an understanding that is "in process". There's no
definitive answer.
To understand Every Thing, means to understand Process.
To understand Process, you must know the context (with text -
the stuff unspoken and assumed or the surrounding environment) -
because processes aren't things without having stuff to process
with/for/to.
sorry - thinking aloud. new concept for me and I'm processing it
here smile emoticon How I understand everything:
everything (n.) late 14c., from every + thing.
every (adj.)
early 13c., contraction of Old English *fre *lc "each of a
group," literally "ever each" (Chaucer's everich), from each
with ever added for emphasis. The word still is felt to want
emphasis; as in Modern English every last ..., every single ...,
etc.
Also a pronoun to Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser. Compare
everybody, everything, etc. The word everywhen is attested from
1843 but never caught on; neither did everyhow (1837). Slang
phrase every Tom, Dick, and Harry "every man, everyone" dates
from at least 1734, from common English given names.
thing (n.)
Old English *ing "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 *ing "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.
