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Last night it became too much for me: Curiosity drove me to my OED to find the
truth. After slogging through pages of tiny tiny text, I found no answer. But I
did find this:
1. 1883, G. Massey, Nat. Genesis
Things were portrayed before thoughts by those who were thingers
rather than thinkers.
2. Thing is an obs. form of Think, v1 and v2
3. in a use from 1420, "thing" is a 3rd pers sing form of "think"
4. Thing, dial or coll
1b nonce-use An idea, a thought
1867, G. McDonald, Home Again
iv. A thing must be a think before it be a thing.
5. Think is an obs. form of Thing
6. spellings of thing dating from Old English vary |thing| with |think|
(anybody know how to represent the IPA on the net??)
