anything

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English

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English anything, enything, onything, from Late Old English aniþing, from earlier ǣniġ þing (literally “any thing”), equivalent to any +‎ thing.

Pronoun

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anything

  1. Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatsoever; a thing of any kind; something or other.
    Synonym: aught
    I would not do it for anything.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
      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.
    • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
      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%.
  2. (with “as” or “like”) Expressing an indefinite comparison.
    • 1916, Edward S. Moffat, Go Forth and Find, pages 81–82:
      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.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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anything (plural anythings)

  1. Someone or something of importance.
    • 1986, David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly:
      How long does it take to turn you actors into good anythings?
    • 2007 May 6, Cindy Chupack, “An Ancient Coda to My 21st-Century Divorce”, in New York Times‎[1]:
      So we tried not to talk about first or second anythings until our meeting with the rabbi.
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Translations
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Verb

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anything (third-person singular simple present anythings, present participle anythinging, simple past and past participle anythinged)

  1. (transitive, intransitive, colloquial) Used as a placeholder verb for any verb out of a set of related verbs. [from 19th c.]
    He wasn't cooking, he wasn't sweeping, he wasn't anythinging!
    He wasn't cooking, he wasn't sweeping, he wasn't doing anything!]
    –I don't want to accompany him! –You never want to anything him!
    –I don't want to accompany him! –You never want to do anything with/to him!
    • 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:
      " 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."
    • 1868, Legh Knight, chapter V, in Tonic Bitter, volume I, London: Chapman & Hall, page 80:
      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.
    • 2007, Ann Packer, Songs Without Words, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, page 236:
      “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.”
    • 2009, Richard Canning, Brif Lives: E..M. Forster, Hesperus Press, page 59:
      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.
    • 2014, Julia Kent, chapter 4, in Complete We, page 90:
      “Are you threatening me?” he asked, clearly amused. Any normal man would have backed down, but this guy was a piece of work.
      “We're not anythinging you,” Laura snapped.
See also
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Etymology 2

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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”).

Adverb

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anything (not comparable)

  1. In any way, any extent or any degree.
    That isn't anything like a car.
    She's not anything like as strong as me.

References

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Anagrams

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