Origins
The word 'nothing' is one of English's most philosophically charged words, yet its etymology is disarmingly simple: it is a compound of 'no' and 'thing,' from Old English 'nāþing' or 'nān þing,' meaning literally 'not any thing.' The word has been in continuous use since before 900 CE, and its transparency — still analyzable as 'no + thing' — has not prevented it from acquiring enormous philosophical, literary, and cultural weight.
The 'no' element comes from Old English 'nā' or 'nān' (not any, no), ultimately from PIE *ne (not), one of the most ancient and universal negation particles in the language family. The 'thing' element has a more surprising history. Old English 'þing' did not originally mean 'object' or 'entity.' Its primary meaning was 'assembly,' 'council meeting,' or 'legal proceeding' — a gathering where matters were discussed and disputes settled. Old Norse 'þing' preserved this meaning clearly: the Icelandic Althing (Alþingi), founded in 930 CE, is the oldest surviving parliamentary institution in the world, and its name means 'general assembly.'
The semantic journey from 'assembly' to 'object' moved through several stages: assembly → matter discussed at assembly → matter or affair in general → any entity or item → any object. By the Middle English period, 'thing' had completed its transition to the general-purpose noun it is today — one of the vaguest and most useful words in the language. 'Nothing,' formed when 'thing' still meant 'matter' or 'affair,' originally meant 'no matter' or 'no affair' before broadening to 'no entity whatsoever.'
Literary History
The philosophical significance of 'nothing' has occupied Western thought from Parmenides (who argued that nothing cannot exist, since to speak of it is already to make it something) through Shakespeare ('Nothing will come of nothing,' King Lear) to Heidegger (who asked 'Why is there something rather than nothing?' and made 'das Nichts' — German for 'the nothing' — a central concept in his philosophy).
Shakespeare exploited 'nothing' with particular brilliance. 'Much Ado About Nothing' puns on the Elizabethan pronunciation of 'nothing' as 'noting' (observing, eavesdropping) — the play is both about making much of nothing and about much noting (spying and overhearing). In 'King Lear,' the word 'nothing' reverberates like a curse: Cordelia says 'Nothing, my lord' when asked what she can say to win her inheritance, and Lear replies 'Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.' The repetition of 'nothing' through the play tracks Lear's descent from king to madman to a man who has nothing.
The mathematical concept of zero — the numerical representation of nothing — was independently developed in India, Mesoamerica, and (in a limited form) Babylon. The Indian mathematician Brahmagupta formalized zero as a number in 628 CE. The Western adoption of zero, via Arabic numerals, was slow and met with resistance — the concept of a symbol for nothing was philosophically troubling to medieval European thinkers.
Latin Roots
German 'nichts' (nothing) and Dutch 'niets' follow the same compound pattern: negation + thing. French 'rien' (nothing) has an entirely different etymology — from Latin 'rem' (thing, accusative of 'rēs'), originally used in negative sentences ('ne... rem,' not... a thing) and eventually absorbing the negative meaning into itself. The comparison shows that different languages arrive at 'nothing' by different paths, but the destination — a word that names the absence of everything — is universal.