Also ting. [a. ON. þing (mod.Scand. ting); the same word as THING sb.1, but taken independently from ONorse.]
1. In Scandinavian countries (or settlements, as in parts of England before the Conquest): A public meeting or assembly; esp. a legislative council, a parliament; a court of law. Cf. ALTHING, STORTHING. (Usually with capital T.)
1840. Iceland, Greenland, etc., 99. They had been accustomed to assemble at the Thing, near the idol temples.
1857. Dufferin, Lett. High Lat., xii. (ed. 3), 387. These landed proprietors were called the Bonders…. On stated occasions they met together, in a solemn assembly, or Thing, (i.e. Parliament,) … for the transaction of public business.
1860. Longf., Wayside Inn, Saga K. Olaf, XVII. vi. The Swedish King Summoned in haste a Thing, Weapons and men to bring in aid of Denmark.
1861. Pearson, Early & Mid. Ages Eng., 150. Next year, 1014 A.D., while Sweyn, in the midst of his ting, was blaspheming St. Edmund, the saint appeared armed.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., xxvii. We shall see what thou sayest to all this, in full Thing at home in Denmark.
1886. Corbett, Fall of Asgard, I. xi. 137. He was proclaimed King of Norway by the Thing. Ibid., II. vii. 92. The judges went out to try the causes…. It was the greatest suit of which notice had been given for that Thing.
transf. 1828. Pall Mall G., 3 Oct., 11/1. This morning … the twenty-eighth Church Congress began work…. Those who remember, the third Congress … are remarking how the great Thing of the Church-folk has grown in popularity.
ǁ 2. (See quot.)
1874. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. iii. § 26. Iceland is divided into four fiordungs [ON. fjorðungar] or quarters…. Each fiordung was divided into three things, and each thing into three godords or lordships.
3. attrib. and Comb.: thing-day, a day on which a Thing is held; thing-dues, fees payable to a chief who presides at a Thing; thing-field, -hall, -hill, -stead, a field, hall, hill or place where a Thing meets. See also THINGMAN.
c. 1856. Denham Tracts (1895), II. 207. The thingstead for determining the controversies among the rude tribes.
1886. Corbett, Fall of Asgard, I. xiii. 168. They skirted the Thing-field. Ibid., II. i. 7. All that were gathered that day upon the Thing-hill. Ibid., vii. 98. Till the end of the Thing days. Ibid., ix. 127. Thorkel found himself rich. Nor was it from the Thing-dues alone. Ibid., xiv. 195. To Olaf’s great Thing-hall went Thorkel,… on the day appointed.
