Seeling/Stahel, eds. The Ecstasy of Things

“The word ‘thing’ (German Ding), now generally used in the sense of ‘object’ or ‘article,’ comes from the language of Germanic law, and originally referred to the law court, the assembly of freemen. In Old High German it took the form thing or ding, in Middle High German dinc. Today ‘thing’ and ‘things’ refer to unimportant or lowly objects. How fascinating that a word once standing for something important, even solemn— an assembly of freemen constituting a court of law— today refers, at least in ordinary speech, to something rather trivial. This kind of gradual devaluation in a word’s meaning is seen quite often. […]

“This devaluation of the word ‘thing’ also reflects a change in the meaning of things for us. In the Middle Ages, many objects were not only useful but necessary for making a livelihood. If we imagine the freemen trying the case of a stolen axe, an object was being discussed before the thing, or law-court, that shaped a man’s whole life. The axe would have been one  of the few handmade objects that he found essential, one that accompanied him throughout his life, even made it possible.”