Random thought of the day: When did saying "Is this a thing" become a thing?

[Kolby Jack]

I mean, it's not SUPER common, but it seems the more shows I watch, especially on the internet, the more I hear people say this. I don't think people used to say this, at least not as often as today. I'm pretty sure you usually just said "does this happen often" or something like that. When did this phrase and its variations come into the vernacular? I don't mind it, but it just struck me today how it kind of crept into my language and I don't where it came from... like the hobo who appeared in my basement one day and refuses to leave.

These are the thoughts that plague my scattered mind and keep me from sleeping at night. Well, that and the hobo.

 

[Sixcess]

My guess would be late 90s/early 00s, and The West Wing or maybe Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The characters in The West WIng definitely used to use the word thing a lot, as in "I need to go and see the guy about the thing."

Edit: ..and my google-fu has failed me as a quick search turns up no clear origin for this phrase. Dammit, now this is going to rattle around in the back of my head as well. Thanks a lot.

 

[Full]

I talk like that in real conversations all the time. Crowd I hang around with, I guess. Don't know when it came about, but I know stuff like that was said in Buffy all the time.

 

[MetalMagpie]

As mentioned above, The West Wing puts it back to at least the late 90s. I have a feeling it's been "business speak" for longer than it's been in more everyday usage, but I have no evidence to support that feeling.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Generally the metaphysics of thing-ness is regarded as beginning with Aristotle who was the first to cover it in a comprehensive manner, although Thales came up with the first idea that the world was made of some-thing, in his case "matter", which he thought consisted of water.

 

[Angie7F]

90s. Has to be the 90s. BUt I haveno idea who started it.

 

[hazabaza1]

I thought that it was always just a thing. It has been for me.

 

[Frasman]

Definately the mid 90's. George Costanza used the phrase several times during the show Sienfeld.