new thingn.adj.
/ˌnjuː ˈθɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈn(j)u ˈθɪŋ/ Frequently with the.
1. Something which is currently in fashion, the latest craze; something avant-garde or innovative. Also occasionally as adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [noun] > the or a prevailing fashion > fashionable thing or craze
new fangle1548
furor1704
fever1761
rage1780
go1784
the fashion1790
furore1790
fashionablea1800
craze1813
delirament1856
fad1881
fash1895
new thinga1911
flu1943
kick1946
1861 D. Murdoch Dutch Dominie of Catskills i. xi. 117 You would send the world round like a teetotum, and banish every good and wholesome doctrine for the newest thing, if you only heard it in the English tongue.
1894 Daily News 23 Jan. 5/1 The newest thing is chilled beef, as distinct from frozen.]
a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) I. xix. 339 She saw with even quicker and more intelligently critical eyes the new thing, the good idea, the improvement on what she already knew.
1928 H. G. Wells Way World is Going 15 The Western Powers of Europe..muckered away an enormous amount of war gear and money in supporting crazy ‘white hopes’ against the nascent new thing in Russia.
1966 New Yorker 1 Oct. 217 Charles Lloyd..wears new-thing clothes (an Army officer's jacket, tinted glasses, and bell-bottom trousers).
1984 Surfer Mar. 5/1 This year the new thing is aerials.
2001 Wired Apr. 205 Ray Kurzeil has a knack for sporting the next new thing.
2. spec. Also with capital initials. A type of experimental jazz music of the 1960s which dispensed with the normal harmonic and rhythmic framework. Now more usually called free jazz.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > jazz > [noun] > types of
rooty-toot1852
soul music1920
Chicago1923
gutbucket1925
symphonic jazz1926
Dixieland1927
jive1928
white jazz1931
Harlem1934
jump1937
New Orleans1938
free jazz1941
progressive jazz1944
bebop1945
gypsy swing1945
modern jazz1946
bop1948
new jazz1949
cool1952
Afro-jazz1954
funk1954
gypsy jazz1955
trad jazz1955
trad1956
whorehouse music1956
new thing1962
fusion1965
1962 Down Beat 12 Apr. 20 Coltrane's cohort Eric Dolphy, a member of that group of musicians who play what has been dubbed the ‘new thing’.
1967 Melody Maker 28 Jan. 15 Near the end, Dolphy had adopted a determinedly ‘new thing’ attitude, becoming more and more anarchistic in his playing, especially on alto.
1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 84 New thing, in jazz, an aggressive and original attitude and feeling.
1989 C. S. Murray Crosstown Traffic viii. 191 The price the jazzbos paid for their conservatism was exclusion from the New Thing.
Derivatives
New ˈThinger n. an exponent or devotee of the ‘new thing’ in jazz.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musician > [noun] > jazz musician > types of
faker1903
swing man1903
honky-tonker1910
Chicagoan1924
stomper1925
Dixielander1927
modernist1932
swinger1934
ride man1935
all-star1937
swingster1937
hamfat1938
mouldy fig1945
traditionalist1949
trad1951
West Coaster1954
mainstreamer1961
soulster1961
New Thinger1964
1964 Down Beat 30 July 24 Had he heard any of the ‘new thingers’ since he had been living in Denver?.. ‘I haven't heard Ornette Coleman, and I've only heard Coltrane on records.’
1966 New Statesman 25 Mar. 438/3 ‘Pure feeling, pure expression, pure movement’ (I quote from Change/1, an extended manifesto of the New Thingers).
1978 Boundary 2 6 372 Rather than basing their improvisations on the chord structure of the tune's head, the ‘new thingers’ began to venture into areas not so patly related to the harmonics of the piece.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.a1911