Re: "thing"

[Sam Plusnet]

On 21/06/2022 14:36, Stefan Ram wrote:
> You might have noticed the recent use of "thing"
> in expressions such as:
>
> |Also I love how Hank and Cristobal are now a thing - Web
> |Somehow money is now a thing in the startrek universe. - Web
> |beaching a ship while spawncamping them is now a thing. - Web

I don't think I would describe that as a 'recent' use.

It's closely allied to (e.g.)

"I've Got a Thing about you Baby" a song title from 1972.

[Richard Heathfield]

This, um, Thing you've Got about me Baby... it wouldn't by any
chance be Wild, would it?

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

[Kerr-Mudd, John]

On Tue, 21 Jun 2022 19:51:08 +0100
Richard Heathfield <r...@cpax.org.uk> wrote:

> On 21/06/2022 7:48 pm, Sam Plusnet wrote:
> > On 21/06/2022 14:36, Stefan Ram wrote:
> >>    You might have noticed the recent use of "thing"
> >>    in expressions such as:
> >>
> >> |Also I love how Hank and Cristobal are now a thing - Web
> >> |Somehow money is now a thing in the startrek universe. - Web
> >> |beaching a ship while spawncamping them is now a thing. - Web
> >
> > I don't think I would describe that as a 'recent' use.
> >
> > It's closely allied to (e.g.)
> >
> > "I've Got a Thing about you Baby" a song title from 1972.
>
> This, um, Thing you've Got about me Baby... it wouldn't by any
> chance be Wild, would it?
>

#Gimmee dat ting.


Heh! That's earwormed you!
--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.

[lar3ryca]

On 2022-06-21 12:51, Richard Heathfield wrote:
> On 21/06/2022 7:48 pm, Sam Plusnet wrote:
>> On 21/06/2022 14:36, Stefan Ram wrote:
>>>    You might have noticed the recent use of "thing"
>>>    in expressions such as:
>>>
>>> |Also I love how Hank and Cristobal are now a thing - Web
>>> |Somehow money is now a thing in the startrek universe. - Web
>>> |beaching a ship while spawncamping them is now a thing. - Web
>>
>> I don't think I would describe that as a 'recent' use.
>>
>> It's closely allied to (e.g.)
>>
>> "I've Got a Thing about you Baby" a song title from 1972.
>
> This, um, Thing you've Got about me Baby... it wouldn't by any chance be
> Wild, would it?

"you make my haaaht sing"

Wild Thing, by "Bobby Kennedy".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erQn9Idd2J0


--
Autocorrect can go straight to he'll.

[Horace LaBadie]

In article <thing-2022...@ram.dialup.fu-berlin.de>,

r...@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote:

> You might have noticed the recent use of "thing"
> in expressions such as:
>
> |Also I love how Hank and Cristobal are now a thing - Web
> |Somehow money is now a thing in the startrek universe. - Web
> |beaching a ship while spawncamping them is now a thing. - Web
>

> . Recently I thought that maybe this is based on
> the older use of "there is no such thing as", as in:
>
> |for all, there is no such thing as an escape possible,« said - Dickens
> |for him there is no such thing as wrong. And he does not in - Twain
> | of fact, there is no such thing as Shakespeare's Hamlet. If - Wilde
>
> . Actually, when taken literally, all these expressions
> make quite some sense, as "thing" can be taken to mean
> "entity" in the sense of "something that exists", and
> so "to be a thing" = "to be an entity" literally means
> "exist". It is quite clear. But still, in the 20th
> century, people would not have expressed it that way
> (in the way of "... is now a thing").

“It’s a place in itself?”

“Well, quite a number of buildings; almost a little industrial colony.
But above all it’s a thing. The article produced.”


Henry James, The Ambassadosr, 1903.

[Jerry Friedman]

That seems to be a different meaning--not "something that exists,
something that can be named recognizably", but the unmentionable
domestic article that's the basis of a certain thriving business.

--
Jerry Friedman

[Quinn C]

* Stefan Ram:

> You might have noticed the recent use of "thing"
> in expressions such as:
>
>|Also I love how Hank and Cristobal are now a thing - Web
>|Somehow money is now a thing in the startrek universe. - Web
>|beaching a ship while spawncamping them is now a thing. - Web

For clarity, these are all instances of the usage "be [now] a thing".

> . Recently I thought that maybe this is based on
> the older use of "there is no such thing as", as in:
>
>|for all, there is no such thing as an escape possible,« said - Dickens
>|for him there is no such thing as wrong. And he does not in - Twain
>| of fact, there is no such thing as Shakespeare's Hamlet. If - Wilde
>
> . Actually, when taken literally, all these expressions
> make quite some sense, as "thing" can be taken to mean
> "entity" in the sense of "something that exists", and
> so "to be a thing" = "to be an entity" literally means
> "exist".

I feel that it means more than that. Things that "are [now] a thing"
usually existed beforehand, but have become nameable, utterable,
allowable as a subject of conversation. They have entered the collective
consciousness as separate from other notions, and as being of
significance.

Mere existence doesn't make something "a thing". It has to be observable
in a systematic fashion to come to the attention of individual humans,
and further, it has to be named in some kind of symbolic system (usually
language) to be a subject of social exchange. Mostly, "things" (objects)
are only those in the last stage, isolated from the continuum of
existence by the human mind.

--
Nobody's God says hate your neighbor
Even if the neighbor doesn't believe in God
Put aside your religion do your God a favor
-- The Roches, Everyone is Good

[Mark Brader]

Stefan Ram (format corrected):

>> You might have noticed the recent use of "thing"
>> in expressions such as:
>>

>> * Also I love how Hank and Cristobal are now a thing - Web
>> * Somehow money is now a thing in the startrek universe. - Web
>> * beaching a ship while spawncamping them is now a thing. - Web

"Sam":

> I don't think I would describe that as a 'recent' use.

In the OED Online this use is sense 17 of the noun, defined as:

# colloquial (originally U.S.). A genuine phenomenon, established
# practice, or discernible trend. Often in questions conveying
# surprise or incredulity (as "is that (even) a thing?"), or as
# an assertion, esp. responding to or pre-empting scepticism (as
# "it's a thing").

And the earliest cite is from a 2000 episode of the TV show "The
West Wing":

| Did you know "leaf peeping" was a thing?

I think that qualifies as pretty recent.
--
Mark Brader | "Rleadse negiifu uoug assount 'u somrletiing the fogm...
Toronto | We arologiize fog anu iinsonneniiense."
m...@vex.net | --Seen in spam

My text in this article is in the public domain.

[Tony Cooper]

On Tue, 21 Jun 2022 17:10:25 -0500, m...@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrote:

>Stefan Ram (format corrected):
>>> You might have noticed the recent use of "thing"
>>> in expressions such as:
>>>
>>> * Also I love how Hank and Cristobal are now a thing - Web
>>> * Somehow money is now a thing in the startrek universe. - Web
>>> * beaching a ship while spawncamping them is now a thing. - Web
>
>"Sam":
>> I don't think I would describe that as a 'recent' use.
>
>In the OED Online this use is sense 17 of the noun, defined as:
>
># colloquial (originally U.S.). A genuine phenomenon, established
># practice, or discernible trend. Often in questions conveying
># surprise or incredulity (as "is that (even) a thing?"), or as
># an assertion, esp. responding to or pre-empting scepticism (as
># "it's a thing").
>
>And the earliest cite is from a 2000 episode of the TV show "The
>West Wing":

I don't know who Hank and Cristobal are, but if they are a "thing", it
can have two different meanings.

It can mean they are a popular and known pair in some area. At one
time, Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker were a "thing" as Ian & Sylvia.

It can mean they are romantically together. Ian and Sylvia were
married at one time, so they were both a "thing" in folk music and a
"thing" as a couple.

Sylvia contined to be a "thing" as a musician after she and Ian were
divorced.
--

Tony Cooper - Orlando Florida

I read and post to this group as a form of entertainment.

[CDB]

On 6/21/2022 2:51 PM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

> Sam Plusnet wrote:
>> Stefan Ram wrote:

>>> You might have noticed the recent use of "thing" in expressions
>>> such as:

>>> |Also I love how Hank and Cristobal are now a thing - Web
>>> |Somehow money is now a thing in the startrek universe. - Web
>>> |beaching a ship while spawncamping them is now a thing. - Web

>> I don't think I would describe that as a 'recent' use.

>> It's closely allied to (e.g.)

>> "I've Got a Thing about you Baby" a song title from 1972.

> This, um, Thing you've Got about me Baby... it wouldn't by any chance
> be Wild, would it?

All right, Teddy on the ocarina, let's go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LE0aToTtGY

Of course, they had to stop giving it air time quite suddenly.

[CDB]

Ian too, until his voice went (WP says 2006). I think they were more of
a thing when they were a thing together, though.

[CDB]

On 6/21/2022 5:52 PM, Jerry Friedman wrote:

You encourage us to humour our fancy.

[CDB]

I think it's related to the use in "I've got a thing about you", as SamP
said. That is a personal obsession; the newer use implies a general
obsession, or at least a matter of interest.

[Lewis]

In message <2fSdna_4DcFM3C__...@giganews.com> Mark Brader <m...@vex.net> wrote:
> Stefan Ram (format corrected):
>>> You might have noticed the recent use of "thing"
>>> in expressions such as:
>>>
>>> * Also I love how Hank and Cristobal are now a thing - Web
>>> * Somehow money is now a thing in the startrek universe. - Web
>>> * beaching a ship while spawncamping them is now a thing. - Web
>
> "Sam":
>> I don't think I would describe that as a 'recent' use.

> In the OED Online this use is sense 17 of the noun, defined as:

> # colloquial (originally U.S.). A genuine phenomenon, established
> # practice, or discernible trend. Often in questions conveying
> # surprise or incredulity (as "is that (even) a thing?"), or as
> # an assertion, esp. responding to or pre-empting scepticism (as
> # "it's a thing").

> And the earliest cite is from a 2000 episode of the TV show "The
> West Wing":

>| Did you know "leaf peeping" was a thing?

This is odd, as 'thing' certainly doesn't seem that new. Having watched
West Wing when it first broadcast, I can say that that line did not
stand out as a new use of 'thing' at all not to me, not to my wife.

Possibly this is just because it seemed a perfectly understandable of
'Bob and Alice are a thing' instead of it being something that we
actually heard a lot in this specific sense.

> I think that qualifies as pretty recent.

My sense of it is that it's from the 80s, possibly the late 80s.

Of course, "a/the thing" to stand in for a topic of discussion, a situation
of concern, a thing to talk about is at least a couple of hundred years
old.

--
"There's a light that shines on everything & everyone. And it shines
so bright - brighter even than the sun". That's what Minnie
thinks as she walks to meet her brother, who is nearly two years
older on a Saturday night. He's DJ-ing at some do on the edge of
town on the night that Minnie Timperley died.

[Sam Plusnet]

Truly it is said:

Things ain't wot they used to be.

[CDB]

On 6/22/2022 3:08 PM, Sam Plusnet wrote:

I wot it's my thing that ain't what it useta be. At least, I thing so.

[Horace LaBadie]

In article <t91gpq$19iq$1...@gioia.aioe.org>, CDB <belle...@gmail.com>
wrote:

As Buffy the Vampire Slayer said in "Welcome to the Hellmouth" back in
1997, describing how one becomes a vampire: "They suck your blood. You
suck their blood. It's a whole big sucky thing."

[Snidely]

Remember Wednesday, when CDB asked plaintively:

I disagree. It's a matter of [social] substance, of reality.

/dps

--
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