sb., (adj.,) and adv. Forms: 1 sum þing(c), ðing, 2 sum ðinc, 3–5 sumþing, 3–6 -thing; 4 somþing (zom-), -þyng, 5 -thyng (6 -e), 7 somthing; 6– something, 6 -thyng, 9 dial. somethin’, etc. [f. SOME a.1 2 + THING sb.1 17. Orig., and freq. down to the end of the 16th cent., written as two words.]
A. sb. 1. Some unspecified or indeterminate thing (material or immaterial).
For something like see LIKE a. 2 e, 2 f.
(a) c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xx. 20. Ða com to him zebedeis bearna modor … sum þingc fram him biddende.
c. 1200. Ormin, 3363. Her icc wile shæwenn ȝuw Summ þing to witerr takenn.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11928. Þar Iesus did in his barnhide Sum-thing þat es of to rede.
1340. Ayenb., 33. Huanne … me him hat zomþing þet him þingþ hard, he him excuseþ.
1382. Wyclif, Luke vii. 40. Symound, I haue sum thing for to seye to thee.
1503. Dunbar, Thistle & Rose, 23. In my honour sum thing thow go wryt.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 592. To doe some thing without cause.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. iii. 248. There’s something in’t More then my Fathers skill.
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. II.), 91. Yet something must be done for examples sake.
1681. Dryden, Span. Fryar, IV. i. Nay, if you will complain, you shall for something. (Beats him.)
1779. Mirror, No. 27. 106. A slip of paper, with something written on it.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxii. He read something in the looks of his soldiers, which even he was obliged to respect.
1863. A. Blomfield, Mem. Bp. Blomfield, I. v. 123. His speeches were those of one who had something to say, not of one who had to say something.
1895. Mrs. B. M. Croker, Village Tales (1896), 30. There, to the left, was something coming rapidly through the crops!
Prov. phr. 1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 132. Some thyng is better then nothyng.
1638. Sanderson, Serm. (1681), II. 97. Something, we say, hath some savour.
attrib. 1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. ii. 36. For nothing hath begot my something greefe.
b. Used as a substitute for a name or part of one, or other particular, which is not remembered or is immaterial, etc.
1764. G. Williams, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), I. 295. Lady Something Grey is here.
1779. C’tess Upper Ossory, Ibid. IV. 75. Another man has sworn to shoot a Miss Something, n’importe, if she did not run away with him from the Opera.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xvi. ‘His name is Craig—Craig—something, is it not?’ ‘Craigengelt is the fellow’s name,’ said the Master.
1862. Borrow, Wild Wales, II. vii. 76. I passed by a place called Llan something.
1896. Baden-Powell, Matabele Campaign, i. (1897), 4. I …just caught the five something train.
c. Some liquor, drink or food; esp. in phr. to take something.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina, lxxxii. Lady Louisa … desired to take something before we began our rambles.
1779. Mirror, No. 25. 98. Come in and have a glass of something after your ride.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. iv. I’ll give you a drop of something to keep the cold out.
d. Used (with between) to denote an intermediate stage or grade.
1821–30. Ld. Cockburn, Mem., ii. (1874), 105. He walked with a slow stealthy step—something between a walk and a hirple.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xviii. An officer, who, having taken Deacon’s orders, held something between a secular and ecclesiastical character.
e. Used to denote an undefined or unknown occupation, or a person in respect of this.
1874. Burnand, My Time, xv. 130. May I be prompter, or call-boy, or something?
1886. C. E. Pascoe, London of To-day, ii. (ed. 3), 37. The restless gentlemen who are ‘something in the city,’ but no one knows what.
2. A certain part, portion, amount or share (of some thing, quality, etc.); freq., a small part or amount, a slight trace.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 157. Dele hit swo, þat ech nedi … haue sum þing þer-of.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9530. To quam ilkan he gaf sum-thing Of his might.
1388. Wyclif, Joshua vii. 1. Sum thing of the halewid thing.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, V. 482. Off Inglismen ȝhett sum thing spek I will.
1562. Winȝet, Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 4. Albeit the time be schort, sumthing of ȝour prais man we speik.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 12 (1656), 23. A set of things that carry in their front … something of [1642 to] Divinity.
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 55. I hope … I may see something of the Improvement … come to pass.
1710. Tatler, No. 245, ¶ 2. Her voice loud and shrill,… and something of a Welch accent.
1780. Mirror, No. 81. 321. There was something of bustle, as well as of sorrow, all over the house.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xliii. Something of the tone, and manners, and feeling of a gentleman.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 319. He has generally seen something of foreign countries.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. § 5. 511. The two Fletchers,… in their unreadable allegories, still preserved something of their master’s sweetness.
b. Const. of with adjective. Obs. or arch.
1654. Dorothy Osborne, Lett. (1888), 257. Love, which, sure, has something of divine in it.
1656. Earl Monm., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., 293. As if something of unseemly, or misbecoming had been asked her.
c. Something of a(n), to a certain extent or degree a (person or thing of the kind specified).
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 106, ¶ 6. Sir Roger, amidst all his good Qualities, is something of an Humourist.
1780. Mirror, No. 70. 278. As he was something of a sportsman, my guardians often permitted me to accompany him to the field.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. 231. I am something of a judge of china myself.
1826. Disraeli, V. Grey, II. xiii. Dormer, who was … something of an epicure, looked rather annoyed.
3. Followed by an adjective.
1382. Wyclif, Acts xxiii. 20. Thei ben to sekinge sum thing certeynere [L. aliquid certius].
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. iii. 75. Ther’s something extraordinary in thee. Ibid. (1610), Temp., III. iii. 94. I’th name of something holy, Sir, why stand you In this strange stare?
1663. S. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr. (1687), 81. The desire also that he felt of speaking something extraordinary on this occasion.
1737. Gentl. Mag., VII. 182/2. The Epigram … seems to have something Serious and Noble in the Turn.
1779. Mirror, No. 61. 242. The most eccentric of them all have something venerable about them.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, xii. Something there was cold in his address, and sinister in his look.
1888. Academy, 14 April, 253/3. Within an ace or so of being something very good indeed.
b. Something damp or short, a drink; spirits. slang or colloq.
c. 1831. Hood, in W. Jerdan, Autobiogr. (1853), IV. 202. I shall never take ‘something short,’ without dedicating it to the same toast.
1864. Slang Dict., 240. Something damp, a dram, a drink.
a. 1904. in Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v., She always had a drop of something short in her tea (Oxf.).
4. In more emphatic use: A thing, fact, person, etc., of some value, consideration or regard.
Something in the wind: see WIND sb.
1582. N. T. (Rhemish), Gal. vi. 3. If any man esteeme him self to be something, whereas he is nothing.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., King & No K., III. ii. To set him … in my rowle, the two hundred and thirteenth man, which is something.
1621. T. Williamson, trans. Goulart’s Wise Vieillard, 103. I have so spent my dayes, that I account of my selfe, as one that hath serued for some vse, and for something in the world.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., II. 274. So we may not … falsely imagine we are Something, when in Truth we are Nothing.
1739–56. Doddridge, Fam. Expositor, clxx. II. 447. Now you say something, signifies among us, You speak right.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. xii. 100. If he could even recover five guineas of it, it would be something.
1865. Whewell, in Mrs. S. Douglas, Life (1881), 540. I shall have Kate’s sweet dear face there; and that will be something.
1887. Lowell, Democracy, 46. It is something that two great nations have looked at each other kindly through their tears.
b. In the phr. There’s something in it, etc.
1681. Roxb. Ball. (1884), V. 255. Their being in Print signifies something in’t.
1713. Berkeley, Hylas & Phil., II. Wks. 1871, I. 309. There is indeed something in what you say.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 363. There is something in it, I am persuaded from my own Experience.
1818. T. L. Peacock, Nightmare Abbey, xiv. (1891), 127. True, Raven, there is something in that. I will take your advice.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, V. 202. She can talk; And there is something in it, as you say.
c. To make something of, to make important or useful; to improve or raise in some way; to succeed in utilizing to some extent.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina, xxvi. She told them that she had it in her head to make something of me.
1814. Jane Austen, Mansf. Park (1851), 85. If the part is trifling she will have more credit in making something of it.
1836. Mrs. Sherwood, Henry Milner, III. xvi. 310. His hopes of making something of the young man.
1870. Rogers, Hist. Gleanings, Ser. II. 246. Calumny made something of his relations with William Tooke.
5. With article or demonstrative pronoun, or in plural (= sense 1): a. With adj. preceding.
sing. 1577. Harrison, England, II. vi. (1877), I. 163. A little something was allowed in the morning to young children.
1661. Glanvill, Van. Dogm., 145. A very slender something in a Fable.
1682. Creech, Lucretius, III. 75. Then we must add a fourth to this frame, A fourth something, but without a name.
1778. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 18 June. An inward something which I cannot account for, prepares me to expect a reverse.
1800. Mrs. Hervey, Mourtray Fam., III. 165. An unaccountable something seemed always to prevent their getting further.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), II. vi. 91. Every monastery … had … its special something, to attract the interest of the people.
1864. Bowen, Logic, iv. 64. It is only an indeterminate something.
pl. 1642. H. More, Song Soul, II. I. iv. 2. Bringing hid Noughts into existencie, Or sleeping Somethings into wide day-light.
1728. Pope, Dunciad, I. 54. Here she beholds ye Chaos dark and deep, Where nameless Somethings in their causes sleep.
1896. R. S. Hichens, in Pall Mall Mag., Dec., 601. Whispering soft somethings in Italian.
1897. Atlantic Monthly, LXXIX. 139/1. The title of a group of miniature essays … devoted to airy somethings.
b. Without prec. adj. Also with genitive (cf. 2).
In the 16–17th cent. somethings is occasionally found in the sense of some things.
sing. 1587. Golding, De Mornay, i. (1592), 4. Nowe betweene nothing and something, (how little so euer that something can bee) there is an infinite space.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., II. ii. 52. Marry sir, for this something that you gaue me for nothing.
1776. Mickle, trans. Camoens’ Lusiad, Dissert. 160/1. The opposition of it to the arch-angel Michael … carries in it a something which must displease.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., III. i. I saw a something in the Sky, No bigger than my fist.
1807. T. Thomson, Chem. (ed. 3), II. 37. Experiments … to discover what that something is.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, lvi. The young gentlemen … might learn a something of every known science.
1894. Parry, Stud. Grt. Composers, 224. They only wanted words at all as a something to excuse their using their voices.
pl. 1656. Hobbes, Six Lessons, Wks. 1845, VII. 301. You allow … your own nothings to be somethings.
1737. Gentl. Mag., VII. 560/1. I know Hands, in which a Parcel of Nothings would make a finer Appearance than other Peoples Somethings.
1789. Charlotte Smith, Ethelinde (1814), II. 143. By having written certain somethings which he was assured by his friends were specimens of uncommon and original genius.
c. A certain amount of money.
1827. Scott, Chron. Canongate, vi. He … had enjoyed legacies, and laid by a something of his own, upon which he now enjoys ease with dignity.
6. a. Something or other, = sense 1 and 1 b.
(a) 1706. Reflex. upon Ridicule, 226. For ’tis hard at long run not to drop something or other, that may notifie their Disposition of Mind towards them.
1752. Foote, Taste, II. Wks. 1799, I. 20. A sort of Queen, or wife, or something or other to somebody.
1873. B. Harte, Fiddletown, 27. He was arrested on suspicion of being something or other.
1897. Flandrau, Harvard Episodes, 337. The piece was a Spanish something or other through which a tambourine shivered at intervals.
(b) 1858. Longf., M. Standish, II. The battle of something-or-other.
1897. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ In Kedar’s Tents, vi. The guide, Antonio something-or-other.
b. Something else, in suggestive use.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xliii. More farewells, more something else’s; a parting word from Martin.
c. Comb., as something-nothing, etc.
1817. Coleridge, Biogr. Lit. (Bohn), 58. In all these cases the real agent is a something-nothing-everything.
1884. Tennyson, Becket, III. i. Henry. What did you ask her? Rosamund. Some daily something-nothing.
7. As adj. Used euphemistically for ‘damned’ or other expletive.
1859. F. Francis, Newton Dogvane (1888), 252. It’s the somethingest robbery I ever saw in my life.
1888. Lees & Clutterbuck, B. C. 1887, xxxii. 358. This is the somethinger somethingest railway I ever struck.
B. adv. In some degree; to some extent; somewhat; rather, a little.
Except as an archaism, this use chiefly survives in constructions which admit of the word being felt as a noun.
1. a. Qualifying a verb.
c. 1275. Wom. Samaria, 7, in O. E. Misc. Al so he þiderward sumþing neyhleyhte, He sende his apostles by-voren.
1530. Baynton, in Palsgr., Introd. 12. Our Englyshe tong hath some thyng altred theyr … terminations.
1585. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., I. xxii. 28. We something doubted the gallies of Genua.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 12. Conies … something resemble a wilde Cat.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., I. 40. Many are unsetled about him,… these may be something satisfied if [etc.].
1785. Holcroft, Tales of Castle, I. 128. I shall be something relieved of a load of sorrow which oppressed me.
1802. W. Fowler, Corr. (1907), 45. I think they may shrink something before they be put in use.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. 463. The scarcely ambiguous answer was something softened the following day.
b. Qualifying a prepositional or adverbial expression of place, extent, distance, time, etc.
1530. Palsgr., 7. Than shall the o be sounded almost lyke this diphthonge ou, and some thyng in the noose.
1576. in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. (1886), 753/2. Ane merche stane set and put sumthing bewest the end of the said dyke.
1605. Shaks., Macb., III. i. 133. For ’t must be done to Night, And something from the Pallace. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., II. ii. 55. Please you come something neerer.
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 55. I have been something long upon this Theme.
1697. Lond. Gaz., No. 3310/4. A brown Gelding something above 14 hands high,… and something thin footed before.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 297. Our Guide being something before us.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, II. xvii. His left hand, raised something above his stomach.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, III. iii. He is a man something under thirty.
1849. Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, v. § xxii. 158. The whole reaching to something above a man’s height.
1896. Guy Boothby, Dr. Nikola, iv. 79. In something under a quarter of an hour we had reached the wharf.
2. a. Qualifying an adj.
Freq. in the 17th and 18th centuries. Now rare or dial. Also in dial. and colloq. use as an intensive with such adjs. as cruel, frightful, etc.
c. 1510. Barclay, Mirr. Gd. Manners (1570), B iiij. Thou seest diuers wayes oft leading to one place, Thone something open, thother close and shit.
1548. Turner, Names Herbes (E. D. S.), 55. So hath a nauet a longe roote and somthynge yealowishe.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 181. Who was of stature something tall, and corpulent.
1666. Marvell, Corr., Wks. (Grosart), II. 194. There is one Bill orderd to be brought in of a something new nature.
1708. Swift, Sacram. Test, Wks. 1755, II. I. 124. I have the misfortune to be something singular in this belief.
1791. Mrs. Inchbald, Next-door Neighbours, III. ii. Sir George is something nervous.
1827. J. F. Cooper, Prairie, I. 30. They told us below, we should find settlers something thinnish hereaway.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., I. 170. Indifferent to the obligations of gratitude, and something careless of the truth.
Comb. 1602. Shaks., Ham., III. i. 181. Haply the Seas … shall expell This something setled matter in his heart.
1608. Chapman, Byron’s Consp., III. ii. Others that with much strictness imitate The something-stooping carriage of my neck.
1842. Tennyson, Will Waterproof, 131. In a court he saw A something-pottle-bodied boy.
† b. With a or an inserted before the adj. Obs.
1588. J. Read, trans. Arcæus’ Compend. Meth., 77 b. Incorporate it so that it may become something an hard Emplaister.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. 215. I was borne with a white head, & somthing a round belly.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 12. Hauing a secure hauen (though dayly decaying, yet with a something dangerous entrance…).
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., xiv. 163. These seem to have something an over-near affinity with … Heresie.
1770. Warburton, in W. & Hurd, Lett. (1809), 455. I have now had something a longer intermission from my pain.
1784. R. Bage, Barham Downs, I. 26. Will you … increase your sister’s fortune to make her something a more suitable match?
c. Qualifying an adv. of manner.
1588. Greene, Pandosto (1843), 27. She began to simper something sweetely.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 825. Being something gently consider’d, Ile bring you where he is aboord.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 21. What he calls a Courtier he uses something roughly.
1713. Berkeley, Hylas & Phil., I. The inferences sound something oddly.
1822. Scott, Nigel, xvii. ‘I said Grahame, sir, not Grime,’ said Nigel, something shortly.
1859. Dickens, Christmas Stories, Haunted House, i. ‘O!’ said I, something snappishly.
d. With a comparative adj. or adv.
1592. Soliman & Pers., V. iv. 130. Yet some thing more contentedly I die For that [etc.].
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 140. This place is something better then desert.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., V. xii. 57. The Stick being something more than the diam. at the Base Ring.
1713. S. Sewall, Diary, 2 Nov. (1879), II. 406. Sam. is something better, yet full of pain.
1735. Johnson, trans. Lobo’s Voy. to Abyssinia, ii. 11. I found him in a Straw-Hut something larger than those of his Subjects.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxxi. You have done your duty something more than boldly. Ibid. (1829), Anne of G., xv. Because my thoughts came slower, may be, and something duller, than those of other folk.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, x. Now this song … is something less than just to me.
e. Followed by too and adj. or adv. Now arch.
1610. Shaks., Temp., III. i. 58. I prattle Something too wildely.
1668. H. More, Div. Dial., I. i. 38. Something too copious a digression.
1671. Shadwell, Humorists, V. 66. It is something too sudden and temerarious.
1709. Mrs. Manley, Secr. Mem. (1716), II. 24–5. Something too large a Head, whence it is plain, that That is no Indication of great Understanding.
1720. De Foe, Capt. Singleton, i. (1840), 3. This fell out something too soon.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xii. I got something too deep into his secrets. Ibid. (1831), Cast. Dang., vi. We have had something too much of this.
† f. Followed by with and a superlative, = somewhat or rather (soon, often, etc.). Obs. rare.
1631. Massinger, Emperor East, II. i. (1632), E j b. Shall I become a votarie to Hymen, Before my youth hath sacrific’d to Venus? ’Tis something with the soonest.
1697. South, Serm. (1698), III. 282. Even that perhaps may be something with the oftenest.
3. In various miscellaneous constructions.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 179. Say and Sele was … averse to the Court ways, something out of pertinaciousness.
1790. in J. Haggard, Rep. Consist. Crt. (1822), I. 81. Her deposition … is highly coloured and inflamed,… something in the style really of a French novel.
1842. Borrow, Bible in Spain (1843), II. xviii. 377. It was … built something in the Moorish taste.
1897. Academy, 9 Jan., 48/1. Something a bore to many, by reason of talking like a book in coat and breeches.
Hence (chiefly as nonce-words) Something v. trans., used colloq. in pa. pple. as a euphemism for ‘damned’ or other imprecation, esp. in the phr. to see (one) somethinged first. Somethingean a. (cf. somethingth below). † Somethingish adv., somewhat. Somethingth a., used to supply the place of a number, name, etc., which is not distinctly remembered or is immaterial (cf. quots. and SOMETHING A. 1 b).
1859. F. Francis, Newton Dogvane (1888), 108. As for paying for him, tell him I’ll see him *somethinged first.
1867. H. Kingsley, Silcote of Silcotes, xli. He said that he would be somethinged if he gave way.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, II. 92. ‘Self-will be ——! somethinged!’ growled Leonard.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xv. Four *something-ean singers in the costume of their country.
1777. Vanbrugh’s Prov. Wife, IV. iii. Why, she really has the air of a sort of a woman a little *somethingish out of the common.
1871. Meredith, H. Richmond, xli. He killed Harry’s friend Seneca in the eighty-*somethingth year of his age.
1891. Sara J. Duncan, Amer. Girl in London, 194. The wife of Colonel So-and-so, commanding the somethingth something.
1898. Academy, 5 Feb., 149/1. There is a new novel from her [M. E. Braddon’s] pen—her fifty-somethingth, we believe.
