game

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An activity with rules that you play for fun or to win.

   You need four people to play this game.

2. 2
   noun

   A single match or round of a sport or contest.

   The game lasted two hours.

3. 3
   noun

   A fun or playful activity.

   Being a child is all fun and games.

4. 4
   noun

   The equipment needed to play a particular game.

   The child received several games for their birthday.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Game has been used since Old English, originally for amusement, fun, or pleasure, and later for a joke or laughingstock. The sense “animal hunted” arose in late Middle English from the pleasure of hunting, while the adjective meaning “spirited” or “willing” developed from game as a term for a fighting cock. The separate sense “lame” or “injured,” as in game leg, is of uncertain origin and may be related to Welsh cam, “crooked.”

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *gamaną Proto-West Germanic *gaman Old English gamen Middle English game English game From Middle English game, gamen, gammen, from Old English gamen (“sport, joy, mirth, pastime, game, amusement, pleasure”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaman, from Proto-Germanic *gamaną (“amusement, pleasure, game", literally "participation, communion, people together”), from *ga- (collective prefix) + *mann- (“man”); or alternatively from *ga- + a root from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think, have in mind”). Cognate with Yola gaame, gaaume, gaume (“game”), Old Frisian game, gome…

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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