English
homo ludens
Homo ludens comes from Latin homō lūdēns ‘playful man’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhomō lūdēns‘playful man’
- Englishearliest quotation 1989homo ludens
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhomō lūdēns‘playful man’
- Englishearliest quotation 1989homo ludens
Earliest quotation: 1989, Yishai Tobin, From Sign to Text: A semiotic view of communication: “To a homo ludens, playing is an aim in…”
The story
Coined by Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga in Homo Ludens (1938), which introduces the concept, from Latin homō lūdēns (‘playful man’).
Every English word from Latin homō lūdēns
Today it means
noun The human being viewed as primarily concerned with play, seeing it as an aim in itself.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin homō lūdēns / homo ludens