'Nothing' is literally 'no-thing' — and Old English 'thing' originally meant 'assembly,' not 'object.'
Not anything; no thing. As a noun, a thing of no importance or concern.
From Old English 'naþing' (nothing, not anything), composed of 'nan' (none, no) and 'þing' (thing, matter, assembly). The element 'þing' is itself fascinating — from Proto-Germanic *þingą meaning 'assembly, meeting, legal council,' from PIE *ten- (to stretch, to extend, in the sense of extending time for a meeting). The word 'thing' shifted from a formal legal assembly to anything discussed at such
The word 'thing' originally meant 'assembly' or 'council meeting' in Old Norse and Old English — not 'object.' The Icelandic parliament is still called the 'Althing' (all-assembly). The shift from 'meeting' to 'matter discussed at a meeting' to 'any matter' to 'any object' happened gradually over centuries. 'Nothing' thus originally meant 'no matter