nothing

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈnʌθ.ɪŋ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English nothing, earlier nathing,^[2][3] inherited from Old English nāþing, also written as two words nān þing,^[3][4] a compound, from Old English nān (“not one, no”) + þing (“thing”),^[5][4] that is, none and thing.^[2] It was written as two words at first.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not anything (Old English, about 888).^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle English nothing was often accompanied by another negative, a use that survives in dialect and nonstandard speech.^[8] It has been used as an adverb, “not at all, in no degree”, since late Old English.^[5][2] As a noun it meant “that which does not exist” from 1535^[3][9] and “zero” from the 15th century.^[9] The sense “a trifle, a thing of no importance” is first recorded in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well (1601).^[10] The dictionaries disagree on the adjective “insignificant, worthless”: Merriam-Webster dates it from 1611 and Barnhart from 1961.^[11][2] Among later phrases, nothing to write home about arose among soldiers of the First World War (1917), and nothing to it, of something easy, is from 1925.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 888 – not anything.^[8]
• c. 1000 – Old English nāthing.^[2]
• before 1200 – adverb, not at all.^[2]
• c. 1300 – for nothing.^[5]
• c. 1425 – zero.^[9]
• 1535 – that which does not exist.^[3][9]
• 1601 – a trifle, a thing of no importance (Shakespeare).^[10]
• 1611 – adjective, worthless (Merriam-Webster, while Barnhart has 1961).^[11][2]
• 1917 – nothing to write home about.^[5]
• 1925 – nothing to it.^[5]

Modern meaning

Pronoun

1. Not anything: there was nothing in the box.
2. No part or share: nothing remains of the house.
3. Something of no importance or concern: it's nothing.

Noun

1. Something that does not exist; nothingness.
2. Zero: won three to nothing.
3. A person or thing of no importance.

Adjective

1. (informal) Of no value or importance.

Adverb

1. Not at all: nothing like as big.

Word family

• do-nothing
• nothingness
• all-or-nothing
• good-for-nothing
• know-nothing
• much ado about nothing

Related words

• anything
• everything
• something
• thing
• none
• naught

Usage notes

By the traditional rule nothing takes a singular verb even when followed by a plural noun (nothing but roses meets the eye).^[12] The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary notes that the pronunciation with /ɒ/ is increasingly widespread in British English.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin