THINGS - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

THINGSAuthored

The Law Mind • 1146 words

Definition

In law, "things" is the broadest classification for all objects of property rights, defined in opposition to persons. Everything that may be owned, possessed, or transferred — but is not itself a legal person — falls within the category of things.

The term operates at a foundational level of legal taxonomy, dividing the subjects of jurisprudence into persons, things, and actions. On this view, the law of property is fundamentally the law of things: the rules governing who holds rights in objects and how those rights arise, transfer, or terminate.

Two distinct usages appear in legal sources:

1. General jurisprudential sense: Things are the objects of property — corporeal and incorporeal, movable and immovable. This is the classical Roman law inheritance, filtered through Blackstone and civilian codes alike. Res in Latin, choses in French, things in English common law tradition all point to the same concept.

2. Ecclesiastical procedure (historical): In English ecclesiastical courts, "things" referred specifically to an appointment set by a judge for parties to present all acts and instruments supporting their respective causes. Parties who failed to exhibit within the appointed time were understood to renounce further exhibits and allegations. This procedural meaning is entirely separate from the property-law sense and is encountered only in ecclesiastical court records.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Plural of "thing" — objects, matters, or entities generally.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Objects, facts, circumstances, or affairs; used broadly for any entity or matter that can be spoken of or thought about.

The gap between common and legal meaning is one of precision, not opposition. In everyday speech, "things" is unremarkable. In legal taxonomy, it is a term of art marking one of the three fundamental divisions of jurisprudence — persons, things, and actions — and carries the specific weight of denoting all subjects of property rights that lack legal personality. A researcher who treats "things" as merely informal language in a legal text may miss that the author is invoking a structural classification with consequences for what rules apply.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Classical legal taxonomy subdivides things along several axes, each with doctrinal consequences:

- Things in possession (res in possessione) vs. things in action (choses in action): Whether the right can be asserted through physical possession or only through legal proceedings.
- Corporeal things vs. incorporeal things: Whether the subject has physical existence (land, chattels) or exists only as a legal abstraction (easements, rents, debts).
- Movable things vs. immovable things: The civilian distinction corresponding broadly to the common law's personal property vs. real property divide.
- Public things vs. private things: Whether the thing is capable of private ownership or is held for common use (a distinction prominent in civilian systems and Louisiana law).

Why It Matters in Research

The term "things" is an entry point into the deepest structural layer of property law, and researchers who approach it only as a common word will miss its organizational force.

In civilian-influenced systems, especially Louisiana, "things" retains its technical Roman law pedigree. The Louisiana Civil Code's definition of things as the second object of jurisprudence (after persons, before actions) is not rhetorical — it determines which book of the code applies to a given legal problem. Researchers working in Louisiana sources must treat "things" as a code-specific term of art.

In common law sources, Blackstone's framing from the Commentaries — property law as the law of things — runs beneath the surface of centuries of English and American property writing. When historical treatise writers invoke "things," they are often signaling that Roman-law derived categories (corporeal/incorporeal, in possession/in action) are about to govern the analysis.

The ecclesiastical procedural meaning is a trap. Burrill and Black (1st ed.) both include it, and the two definitions sit adjacent in those sources. A researcher in ecclesiastical court records who encounters "things" in a procedural context should not assume property law is being discussed. The meanings are entirely distinct and historically unrelated.

For tort researchers, "Thing factors" appears in modern negligence law — the California Supreme Court's framework for bystander NIED recovery uses "Thing" as a case name reference (Thing v. La Chusa), not as a reference to this property-law taxonomy. The homonymy is coincidental but can create confusion in undifferentiated search results across a multi-subject corpus.

Historical Dictionary Support

The historical dictionaries converge on the jurisprudential definition with unusual consistency. Black's (both editions), Bouvier, and Burrill all anchor the term to Blackstone's Commentaries, Book II, page 16, treating "things" as the general denomination of property subjects contradistinguished from persons. This cross-source agreement signals genuine doctrinal stability — the concept was not contested between compilers.

Bouvier adds the Swiss civil code reference (Code du Canton de Berne, art. 332), framing things as "every object, except man, which may become an active subject of right." This phrasing is more precise than Blackstone's property-centered formulation and reflects the civilian tradition's effort to link the category to rights-bearing capacity rather than merely to economic value.

Burrill is the most comprehensive, preserving both the civilian etymology (Lat. res; Fr. choses) and the ecclesiastical procedural meaning in the same entry, while also noting that in testamentary contexts "things" in a will carries yet another interpretive weight — a fragment the other dictionaries omit.

What the historical dictionaries collectively miss: they do not address the subtypes of things (corporeal/incorporeal, movable/immovable) with the depth those distinctions warrant for property research. A researcher relying solely on dictionary definitions will need to move quickly to Blackstone, the Institutes, or the relevant civil code articles to understand the operative subdivisions.

Jurisdictional Note

Louisiana's Civil Code treats "things" as a defined term organizing its entire law of property, making the civilian taxonomy directly operative in that jurisdiction. Common law jurisdictions absorbed the same Roman law categories through Blackstone but rarely use "things" as a formal term of art in modern statutes or restatements, preferring "property" instead. Researchers crossing between civilian and common law sources should not assume the two traditions use the underlying categories identically even when the vocabulary converges.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

The Law Mind Torts & Personal Injury Encyclopedia — Defamation and Privacy Torts: NIED — Bystander Recovery Rules (Dillon/Thing Factors): Relevant for the "Thing factors" framework governing negligent infliction of emotional distress bystander claims. Note that this reference is to the California Supreme Court case Thing v. La Chusa, not to the property-law taxonomy of "things" as objects of jurisprudence.

THINGSmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In English ecclesiastical prac- tice. An appointment by the judge of a time at which both parties are to exhibit all the acts and instruments which make for their respective causes.

THINGSmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

The most general denomina- tion of the subjects of property, as contra- distinguished from persons. 2 Bl. Comm. 16. The word "estate" in general is applicable to anything of which riches or fortune may consist. The word is likewise relative to the word "things," which is the second object of jurisprudence, the rules of which are applicable to persons, things, and actions. Civil Code La. art. 448. Such permanent objects, not being persons, as are sensible, or perceptible through the senses. Aust. Jur. § 452. A "thing" is the object of a right; i. e., whatever is treated by the law as the object over which one person exercises a right, and with reference to which another person lies under a duty. Holl Jur. 83. Things are the subjects of dominion or property, as distinguished from persons. They are distrib- uted into three kinds: (1) Things real or immov- able, comprehending lands, tenements, and here- THESAURUS, THESAURIUM. The ditaments; (2) things personal or movable, com- treasury; a treasure.

THINGSmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

The most general denomination of the subjects of property, as contradistinguished from persons. 2 Bl. Comm. 16, The word “estate” in general is applicable to anything of which riches or fortune may consist. The word is likewise relative to the word “things,” which is the second object of juns prudence, the rules of which are applicable te persons, things, and actions. ‘Civ. Code La. art. 448. ea Se ce Such permanent objects, not being persons, as are sensible, or perceptible through the senses. Must. Jur. § 452. . : : A “thing” is the object of a right; ¢ ¢., whatever is treated by the law as the object over which one person exercises a right, and with reference to which another person lies under aduty. Holl. Jur. 83. ar . Things are the subjects of dominion or property, a’ distinguished from persona. They are distributed into three kinds: (1) Things real or immovable, comprehending lands, tenements, and hereditaments; (2) things personal or movable, comprehending goods and chattels; and (3) things mixed, partaking of the characteristics of the two former, as a title-deed, a term for years. The civil law divided things into corporeal (tangi possunt) and incorporeal (tangs non possunt.) harton. —Things in action. A thing in action is a tight to recover money or other personal property by a judicial proceeding. Civ. Code Cal. $,953. See CHosE IN ACTION.—Things pergonal, Goods, money, and all other movables, which may attend the owner’s person whereever. he thinks proper to.go. 2 Bl. Comm. 16. Things personal consist of goods. money, and all other movables, and of such rights and profits as relate to movables, 1 Steph. Comm. 156.:'See People v. Holbrook. 13 Johns. (N. ).90; U. S. v. Moulton, 27 Fed. Cas. 11; Sf i vy. Brooklyn, 9 Barb. (N. Y.) 546.— Things real. Such things as are permanent: fixed, and immovable, which cannot be carried out of their place: as lands and tenements. 2 Bl. Comm. 16. ‘This definition has been obected to as not embracing incorporeal rights. r. Stephen ‘defines things real to “consist of things substantial and immovable, and of er tights and profits annexed to or issuing out o these.” 1 Steph. Comm. 156. Things real are étherwise described to consist of lands, tenements, and hereditaments. See Bates v. Spar. rell, 10 Mass. 324; People v. Brooklyn, Barb. (N. Y.) 546. ‘hings accessory are of the nature of the prinoipal. Finch, Law, b. 1, c. 3, n. 25. Things are construed according ‘to that which was the cause thereof. Finch, Law, b. 1, c. 3, n. 4. Things are dissolved as they be con- ‘tracted. Finch, Law, b. 1, ¢c. 3, n. 7. Things grounded upon an ill and void beginning cannot have a good perfeotion. Finch, Law, b. 1, ¢ 3, n. 8. Things in action, entry, or re-entry cannot be granted over. Van Rensselaer ¥. Ball, 19 N. Y. 100, 103. Things incident cannot he severed. Finch, Law, b. 3, ¢c. 1, n. 12. Things incident pass by the grant of the principal. Seymour v. Canandaigua & N. F. R. Co., 25 Barb. (N. Y.) 284, 310. ' Things incident shall pass by the @rant of the principal, but not the principal by the grant of the incident. Co. Litt. 152a, 1513; Broom, Max. 433. Bu. Law Dict.(2p Ep.)—73 Lists

thingsnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

plural of thing

Thingsnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

plural of Thing

thingsnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

One's clothes, furniture, luggage, or possessions collectively; stuff | The general state of affairs in a given context, e.g. one's relationship

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