Etymologically
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nothing

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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

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