Etymology From Middle English anything, enything, onything, from Late Old English aniþing, from earlier ǣniġ þing (literally “any thing”), equivalent to any + thing.
1
Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatsoever; a thing of any kind; something or other.
I would not do it for anything.
Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […] his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
1 more example
In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
2
With “as” or “like” Expressing an indefinite comparison.
Perhaps it was this atmosphere of misplacedness and loneliness as much as anything which led her to speak to him one evening in early summer when the office had closed.1916, Edward S. Moffat, Go Forth and Find, pages 81–82:
Etymology From Middle English anything, enything, onything, from Late Old English aniþing, from earlier ǣniġ þing (literally “any thing”), equivalent to any + thing.
1
Someone or something of importance.
How long does it take to turn you actors into good anythings?1986, David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly:
So we tried not to talk about first or second anythings until our meeting with the rabbi.2007 May 6, Cindy Chupack, “An Ancient Coda to My 21st-Century Divorce”, in New York Times:
Etymology From Middle English anything, enything, onything, from Late Old English aniþing, from earlier ǣniġ þing (literally “any thing”), equivalent to any + thing.
1
Ambitransitive, Colloquial Used as a placeholder verb for any verb out of a set of related verbs.
He wasn't cooking, he wasn't sweeping, he wasn't anythinging!
–I don't want to accompany him! –You never want to anything him!
4 more examples
" No, no," said he, quickly, " I repudiate half compliments of all kinds. I will neither be half-uncled, half-respected, nor, in short, half-anythinged, by you. ' Out upon such half-faced fellowship !' I will either be something, or altogether nothing."1849, Fanny Hervey Stirling, “Uncle George Declares Himself” (chapter IX), in Fanny Hervey; or, The Mother's Choice, volume I, London: Chapman & Hall, page 112:
Papa and mamma beg to be very kindly remembered to you" — I'm sure the two old savages wouldn't beg to be kindly anythinged, but it looks well that she should say so, doesn't it? But the end is the best.1868, Legh Knight, chapter V, in Tonic Bitter, volume I, London: Chapman & Hall, page 80:
“She isn't dating him.” “Oh. What would you call it? I don’t know what you'd call it.” “She isn’t anythinging him. She just likes him, and he likes her back. I—I lied earlier.”2007, Ann Packer, Songs Without Words, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, page 236:
I came inclined to be pleased and quite free from racial prejudices, but in 10 months I’ve acquired an instinctive dislike to the Arab voice, the Arab figure, the Arab way of looking or walking or pump shitting or eating or laughing or anythinging.2009, Richard Canning, Brif Lives: E..M. Forster, Hesperus Press, page 59:
Etymology From Middle English anything, enything, onything, onythynge, from Old English ǣniġe þinga, ǣnġi þinga (literally “by any of things”), from ǣniġe, instrumental form of ǣniġ (“any”) + þinga, genitive plural of þing (“thing”).