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PLAY

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 831 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PLAY , a word of which the See also:

primary meaning is that of See also:free or active See also:movement or exercise. The O. Eng. plegan or plegian, from which comes the substantive plega, play, is apparently cognate with Ger. pflcgen, to take care or See also:charge of, and Pflege, care, and the connexion in sense is to be found in the primary meaning, that of exercise or active movement. In its primary meaning " play " is used of the rapid changing movement of See also:light and See also:colour, and also figuratively of thought or See also:fancy, and specifically of the free movement of parts of a mechanism on each other, of a See also:joint or See also:limb, &c. To play a musical See also:instrument is to move the fingers upon it, and until the 18th See also:century the verb was intransitive, and " on " or " upon " was always used with the name of the instrument. The very See also:general use of the word for See also:sport, See also:game or amusement, is an See also:early and easy development from the meaning of active movement or exercise as a recreation after See also:work; that of a dramatic performance (see See also:DRAMA) is very early; the New See also:English See also:Dictionary quotes from, See also:King See also:Alfred's See also:Orosius (c. 893). The See also:primitive play See also:instinct or play impulse in See also:man has been much discussed in See also:recent years by psychologists in connexion with See also:child-study (see CHILD), and with the expression of the emotions (see J. See also:Sully, On See also:Laughter, 1902, &c.; also See also:AESTHETICS). See generally Carl Groos, The Play of Animals (1898) and The Play of Man (1901) ; and See also:Baldwin's See also:Diet. of See also:Philosophy, s.v.

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