What it means
Straight out of Jamaican Patois, where it just means thing, then fully folded into Multicultural London English and spread way beyond London. Ting is mad flexible. It can mean a person you're linking, a whole situation, an event, or literally just an object. Proper all-purpose word that lets the sentence do a little shape-shifting.
Usage examples
"Yo fam she's got this new ting going on with some guy from ends, it's a whole ting apparently but nobody knows the full story still."
"Bro the whole ting at college was mad today, fire alarm went off twice, the canteen ran out of chips and the lecturer just gave up and let us go home before two."
"She got a new ting in Hackney, says he is calm but secretive, none of the girls have met him yet and the group chat is in meltdown about the whole situation since Monday."
"I can't lie, that little ting by the station does the best jerk chicken in the whole area."
"Man said it was a quick ting, then we were outside in the rain for two hours waiting on him."
Where it comes from
From Jamaican Patois ting, just the Patois form of thing. It moved into British street talk through Caribbean communities, especially in London, then got baked into Multicultural London English through everyday chat, grime, dancehall, pirate radio, and carnival. Now it works as a super-flexible catch-all noun across loads of the UK.
Editors of this term
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