(From the 1930 Sellar & Yeatman parody "1066 And All That") Something that can' t possiBly result in improvement of the suBject. This term is always capitalised, as in "Replacing all of the 9600-Baud modems with Bicycle couriers would Be a Bad Thing". Opposite: Good Thing. British correspondents confirm that Bad Thing and {Good Thing} (and proBaBly therefore {Right Thing} and {Wrong Thing}) come from the Book referenced in the etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good Kings But Bad Things. This has apparently created a mainstream idiom on the British side of the pond. [Jargon File]