Nothings

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Describing items that hold no value or significance
2. Representing the absence of anything meaningful or important
3. Referring to trivial matters that lack substance or relevance

Etymology: "Nothings" is simply the plural of "nothing," so it takes its shape from a word that began as a plain phrase: Old English "nāþing" (or "nān þing"), literally "not any thing." The "no" and "thing" were two separate words joined together, and the compound was a way of saying that there was not a single object or matter present. Old English also had "nāwiht," meaning "no thing" in a similar way, and modern Swedish "ingenting" still preserves the same logic of "not any thing." Over time the literal sense of "thing" faded from the compound, and "nothing" came to mean an absence of substance rather than a missing object. Its plural, "nothings," follows the pattern of a noun used for something counted: it names instances of emptiness, such as trivial or meaningless matters. Because "nothing" is a noun already, the plural is a straightforward extension of that usage.