[lit-ideas] Without That Certain Thing
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 18:50:19 EDT
From the OED, under 'nothing':
"As in 'anything', 'something', 'nothing', the subst.
element has usually no definable meaning,
the compound being equivalent to a neuter
absol. use of the adj."
Under
"thing":
"The forms 'any thing', 'every thing', 'no thing', 'some thing'
(in which 'thing' is an unemphatic stressless use of
sense [sic -- JLS] 8 or 11), are now written each as
one word (see ANYTHING pron., n., and adv.,
EVERYTHING pron., NOTHING pron., n., adv., and int.,
SOMETHING n. and adv.).]"
"NICHTS, ETWAS, ALLES"
Under 'thing' 8:
c1200 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 1839 Niss nani ing att muhe ben Wi
godd off efenn mahhte.
under 'thing' 11:
1757 W. PROVOOST Let. 25 Aug. in P. L. White Beekman Mercantile Papers
(1956) II. 659 Please to send me the following things Vizt. 1 Dozen of Black
mitts. 1 piece of Black Durant fine.
German for 'something': ETWAS
German for 'nothing': NICHTS
German for 'everything': ALLES
German for 'anything': ALLES
JLS
See you all tomorrow -- I have _things_ to do!
**************Recession-proof vacation ideas. Find free things to do in
the U.S.
(http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/domestic/national-tourism-week?ncid=emlcntustrav00000002)
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] Without That Certain Thing - Jlsperanza
