Ding

From the pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 定州 (Dìngzhōu, “Orderly Prefecture”).

Ding

1. (historical) A prefecture of imperial China within present-day Hebei under the Northern Wei, Sui, and Tang dynasties, with its seat at Dingzhou.
2. (historical) A county of Republican China in Hebei Province.

• (prefecture): Dingzhou
• (county): Dingxian

Borrowed from Mandarin 丁 (Dīng) or Eastern Min 陳／陈 (Dĭng).

• Ting

Ding

1. A surname from Mandarin or Eastern Min.

From Middle High German ding, from Old High German thing, from Proto-West Germanic *þing. Compare Low German ding, Dutch ding, English thing, Danish ting.

• IPA^(key): /dɪŋ/ (most areas)
• IPA^(key): /dɪŋk/ (chiefly northern Germany)

• Audio:

  (file)

Ding n (strong, genitive Dinges or Dings, plural Dinge or Dinger, diminutive Dinglein n)

1. thing

   Was ist das für ein Ding? ― What is that thing?

2. (mildly disrespectful) thing; girl; boy (young person)
3. (dated) Thing (historic Germanic council)

   Synonym: Thing

• The plural Dinge means things in general, or different kinds of things:

  Werte sind wichtiger als Dinge. ― Values are more important than things.

  Nahrung, Kleidung und Wohnung sind Dinge, die jeder braucht.

  Food, clothes and a home are things that everyone needs.

• The plural Dinger means several items of one sort of thing:

  Was sind das hier für kleine rote Dinger? ― What are these little red things?

• In formal style, this sense is preferably covered by Gegenstände rather than Dinger. The plural Dinger is also used for the sense “young person”.

• dinglich
• Dings, Dingens, Dingsbums, Dingsda, Dingenskirchen (placeholder nouns used like English thingy and whatshisname)
• Unding

• Sache
• Zeug
• Gegenstand

• “Ding” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Ding (Gegenstand, Vorgang)” in Duden online
• “Ding” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.
• Friedrich Kluge (1883) “Ding”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891

From Rhine Franconian [Term?], from Middle High German ding, from Old High German thing, from Proto-West Germanic *þing. Compare German Ding, Dutch ding, English thing, Swedish ting.

Ding n (plural Dinge)

1. thing

• Dingel

From Old Frisian thing, from Proto-West Germanic *þing. Cognates include West Frisian ding, Dutch ding and German Ding.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪŋ/
• Hyphenation: Ding
• Rhymes: -ɪŋ

Ding n (plural Dingere)

1. thing

• Marron C. Fort (2015) “Ding”, in Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht, Buske, →ISBN