Play

It. gioco, esecuzione, opera; Fr. jeu, pièce; Germ. Spiel; Span. juego, ejecución, opera. The term play strictly, yet simultaneously and interactively, encompasses a sense of playing both a game and an instrument. In other words, the term brings together the idea of the pleasure of play and a conscious, organised, guided and targeted gesture or movement involving the body. This movement particularly involves the hands and fingers, which are unique to humans and associated with many species-specific skills (cf. the homunculus). Recently, the term digit has emphasised and introduced another dimension of the term play, that of calculation and number skills done with the fingers (for example, now less common activities like using an abacus, throwing dice or traditional counting games) while also referring to the digital world, a new and unique logical-semantic field.