Note:

Thing, thyngan: verb.

From Old English thyngian, to parley, to assemble, to confer, to make terms or come to terms, determine, discourse, address. Compare Old Norse thynga: to hold a public meeting or to confer. Also, Old High German dingôn: to hold a court, to conduct a lawsuit, to negotiate a compromise or terms of peace.

Thing: noun.

Forms: þing, þinge, thyng, thinge, thynge. [Old English þing; Old Frisian. thing, ting]: assembly, council, lawsuit, matter. Old Saxon thing: an assembly for judicial or deliberative purposes, conference, transaction, matter, object.

Old High German ding, dinc: a public assembly for judgment and decision, law-court. Danish ting: a court of justice. Norwegian ting (neuter): a public assembly; also a creature, a being.

That which is stated or thought; an opinion; a notion; an idea.

A suit, a plaint, a decision, a discourse or a giving voice. A convocation or parliament of voices. The thingstead is the place of discussion or parley.

From a discussion, or assembly or law court comes the sense of a matter at hand, an issue for debate. And from that sense comes eventually the nearly opposite sense of a concrete object.

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