Etimology
From Middle English anything, enything, onything, from Late Old English aniþing, from earlier ǣniġ þing (literally “any thing”), equivalent to any + thing.
pronoun
anything
Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatever; a thing of any kind; something or other.
(with “as” or “like”) Expressing an indefinite comparison.
Examples
Synonym: aught
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.
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%.
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.
noun
anything (plural anythings)
Someone or something of importance.
Examples
How long does it take to turn you actors into good anythings?
So we tried not to talk about first or second anythings until our meeting with the rabbi.
Related words
related terms
anybody, anyone
anywhere
everything
nothing
something
thing
Etimology
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
anything (not comparable)
In any way, any extent or any degree.
Examples
That isn't anything like a car.
She's not anything like as strong as me.