Victoria in Madison, Wisconsin, is curious about saying something is a thing, meaning that a particular phenomenon exists or is genuine. This phrase has been around since at least the time of Jane Austen, who used it in Pride and Prejudice. Other phrases involving the word thing include my thing is meaning “what concerns me is” and the thing of it is meaning something along the lines of “the most significant element is.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “How Long Has “It’s a Thing” Been a Thing?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Victoria calling from Madison, Wisconsin.
I’m curious about the origins of the phrase, it’s a thing.
Like, when did saying it’s a thing to someone become a thing?
Now, in what context would you say to somebody, it’s a thing?
Usually, if you’re talking about a new topic or something that someone else is skeptical about, you could respond, like, truly, it’s a thing.
And I’ve heard you and Grant talk about it on the show or use the phrase before.
Yeah.
Yeah, so it’s kind of a validating thing.
Like what I’m talking about is really a phenomenon or something in existence, right?
Well, how well do you know you’re Jane Austen?
Not very well.
Well, if you had read Pride and Prejudice recently, you would find It’s a Thing in there from 1813.
Oh, the phrase?
Yeah, absolutely.
That’s really cool.
The earliest citation that I know of is from Pride and Prejudice.
And what year is that?
1813, so that’s 200 plus years.
Okay.
Yeah, so it’s got some life to it.
It’s got some legs, as they say in Hollywood.
So it’s been around for a while.
And is it just recently becoming more prevalent?
No, no, it’s been around for, it’s got a steady drumbeat of usage on and on and on through 1800s and 1900s.
Through today.
No more particularly common than it was then.
Okay, that’s really interesting.
I would call this the kind of colloquial usage that almost escapes notice until you think really hard about it and you’re like, why did we do that?
Yes, exactly.
And then you have to call a radio show.
And then you start hearing it everywhere, right?
Yes.
But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been around before that.
Yeah, I’ll have to read Pride and Prejudice.
I’m going to find that.
I recommend it.
I recommend it.
Well, thank you so much for calling.
Yeah, thank you for having me.
All right.
Thanks, Victoria.
Bye-bye.
Take care.
Bye.
It’s a thing.
Thing is one of those multi-use words where it’s a stand-in, almost pronoun-like for other objects.
And I hesitate to say this because it’s such the nerdiest thing to say.
Oh, go ahead.
If you have access to the Oxford English Dictionary, look at the entry for a thing, and you will see some really interesting uses of thing that you might not have noticed in your own English, but they’re real and useful.
The thing is.
That’s another one.
Right.
The thing is.
Right.
It’s the thing that we say.
Right.
And the other one that cracks me up is my thing is.
Yeah, my thing.
Yeah.
What is that?
Or here’s the thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or the thing of it.
The thing of it is.
The thing of it is.
Yeah.
And there’s all related, but there’s sense differences.
There’s subtle differences.
Yeah.
Call us with your language question.
