4 ms·
It is also one of those cases where one word in English becomes two words in a different language. Play as in playing a video game, or chess, or something simil
by hansbo 6y ago
It is also one of those cases where one word in English becomes two words in a different language. Play as in playing a video game, or chess, or something similar, is called "spela", while play as children do is called "leka".
- vidarh 6y agoThis is an interesting pair, as both leke/lege/leka and spille/spela apparently comes from proto-Germanic, but via Norse (leikr) for the former and German (spelen/spielen) respectively. Interestingly Old English apparently has "lac" which belongs to the former group, while "play" is also of Germanic origin, but derived from words implying moving about and being engaged in rather than directly from the more specific Germanic words for play. When I looked it up I expected to see one of the more usual examples when there are pairs like this of one Norse/Germanic source and one imported and bastardised from latin or a romance language.