1787 J. Elphinston Propriety Ascertained II. iv. iv. 177 In Scotlands familliar diccion evvery littel thing iz a thingy, annimate or inannimate.

1866 W. Gregor Dial. Banffshire (Philol. Soc.) 207 They hidna muckle fin they geed thegither, bit they weer in o' their bits a thingies.

1875 W. Alexander Sketches Life among Ain Folk 21 This is a little bun'lie 't my mither bad's gie ye; there's holie-pie thingies in't 't ye made yersel'.

1888 J. M. Barrie When Man's Single i. 23 A speerity bit thingy she was.

1928 N. Shepherd Quarry Wood iii. 21 ‘Yer mither disna like me touchin' her thingies,’ he said, ‘but we'll need to get a bit piece till ye.’

1947 Forfar Dispatch 9 Jan. Inahent the coonter she's no' near sic a nochtie, shilpit, wee thingie.

2004 Aberdeen Evening Express (Nexis) 13 Feb. 18 An inspector called and advised him to leave out dishes of cat food and water so the thingie would be tempted down.

1927 P. Brash Let. 14 Aug. in H. B. Creswell Honeywood Settlement (1930) 120 Today the fairy hand of Judith burst the wood thingy that runs along under the sink.

1969 Times 15 Oct. (Motoring section) p. vi/1 (advt.) This stamp-sized thingy is a very clever little device.

1977 Spare Rib June 26/3 Then there are those women who make men wear things on their thingies.

2001 C. Glazebrook Madolescents 222 As if that wasn't enough, there's a stupid street-theatre thingy, half a dozen wackos on stilts.

1891 Cent. Dict. Thingy,..material; like a material object; objective; actual; real.

1894 M. Schuyler in Forum (N.Y.) July 617 The government buildings have become more and more ‘thingy’, more and more compilations of ‘features’ that fail to make up a physiognomy.

1958 Philos. Q. 8 167 Values are not substantial and ‘thingy’, but they resist being thought or wished away just as things do.

1961 New Left Rev. Mar. 60/2 Our world..and all its sheer thingy detail.

1994 Compar. Lit. 46 228 The same exemption from abstract meaning..has elevated painting to the rank of ultimate model, and Cézanne's ‘thingy’ apples to the idea at which poetry too must aim.

1891 Cent. Dict. Thingy,..materialistic; practical; given to thinginess; pragmatical; as, a thingy person or view.

1957 J. Bayley Romantic Survival x. 194 We are not to dwell upon either the ‘thingy’ or the associative nature of the words timber and underwood, but simply to grasp the meaning towards which they point as metaphors.

1995 Stud. Eng. Lit. 1500–1900 35 181 This..is, I think, on the right track with regard to Nashe's pamphlets and many other such highly ‘rhetorical’ and also highly ‘thingy’ texts.

1891 Cent. Dict. Thinginess.

1892 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) A. 186 426 The result..serves to still further cast doubt upon the ‘thinginess’ of energy.

1914 Morning Post 26 Feb. 2/2 Let us hear the second~hand eloquence of one of those second-rate authorities in his vain attempt to get at the thinginess of such things.

1976 New Yorker 15 Mar. 118/2 The very thinginess of the contemporary city life in the film shows—the fast cars, the unobtrusive chic, the small cafes—seems to deprive us of any illumination.

1982 T. Gunn Occasions of Poetry i. 22 He was in love with the bare fact of the external world, its thinginess.

2003 Guardian 16 Aug. (Review section) 12/4 What academics call ‘material history’ (by which is meant the thinginess of the past, its shapes and textures—who made them, who owned them).