anything

pron
/ˈɛn.ɪ.θɪŋ/UK/ˈɛn.i.θɪŋ/US/ˈɪ̟n.i.θɪŋ/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ís? Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Indo-European *h₁oy-no-kós Proto-Germanic *ainagaz Proto-West Germanic *ainag Old English ǣniġ Old English ǣniġe Proto-Indo-European *tenk-? Proto-Indo-European *tenkóm Proto-Germanic *þingą Proto-West Germanic *þing Old English þing Old English þinga Old English ǣniġe þinga Middle English anything English anything From Middle English anything, enything, onything, onythynge, from Old English ǣniġe þinga, ǣnġi þinga (literally “by any of things”), from ǣniġe, instrumental form of ǣniġ (“any”) + þinga, genitive plural of þing (“thing”).

  1. inherited from aniþing
  2. inherited from anything

Definitions

  1. Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatsoever

    Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatsoever; a thing of any kind; something or other.

    • I would not do it for anything.
  2. Expressing an indefinite comparison.

    • Perhaps it was this atmosphere of misplacedness and loneliness as much as anything which led her to speak to him one evening in early summer when the office had closed.
  3. Someone or something of importance.

    • How long does it take to turn you actors into good anythings?
    • So we tried not to talk about first or second anythings until our meeting with the rabbi.
  4. + 2 more definitions
    1. Used as a placeholder verb for any verb out of a set of related verbs.

      • He wasn't cooking, he wasn't sweeping, he wasn't anythinging!
      • –I don't want to accompany him! –You never want to anything him!
    2. In any way, any extent or any degree.

      • That isn't anything like a car.
      • She's not anything like as strong as me.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for anything. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA