To play into the hands (of someone) "act in such a way as to give the advantage to one's opponent or a third party" is from 1705. To play second fiddle in the figurative sense is from 1809 ("Gil Blas"). To play (something) safe is from 1911 to play favorites is attested from 1902. To play for keeps is from 1861, originally of marbles or other children's games with tokens. To play house as a children's activity is from 1958. To play up "emphasize" is from 1909 (perhaps originally "play music more vigorously") to play down "minimize" is from 1930 to play along "pretend to agree or cooperate" is from 1929. Many expressions are from the stage, sports and games, or music, and it is not always easy to say which is from which. Meaning "to cause (a recording) to reproduce what is on it" is by 1903, probably from the "make music" sense. Sense of "operate or cause to operate with continuous or repeated action" is from 1590s. Meaning "perform or act on the stage" (transitive) is by late 14c., as are the senses of "take the role of" and "make a pretense of, make believe" and "act thoughtlessly or wantonly." Sense of "put forward, move, throw, lay on the table, etc." in the course of a game or contest is by 1560s of chess pieces, 1670s of playing cards. It has been opposed to work (v.) since late 14c. Meaning "to take part in" a martial or athletic game is from c. Middle English pleien, from Old English plegan, plegian "move lightly and quickly, occupy or busy oneself, amuse oneself engage in active exercise frolic engage in children's play make sport of, mock perform music," from Proto-West Germanic *plegōjanan "occupy oneself about" (source also of Old Saxon plegan "vouch for, take charge of," Old Frisian plega "tend to," Middle Dutch pleyen "to rejoice, be glad," German pflegen "take care of, cultivate"), which is apparently connected to the root of plight (v.), but the ultimate etymology is uncertain and the phonetic development is difficult to explain. 1400), overlitel "too small" (mid-14c.), oversmall (mid-13c.), overshort, etc. Īmong the old words not now existing are Old English oferlufu (Middle English oferlufe), literally "over-love," hence "excessive or immoderate love." Over- in Middle English also could carry a sense of "too little, below normal," as in over-lyght "of too little weight" (c. This is rare in Modern English, but compare Gothic ufarmunnon "to forget," ufar-swaran "to swear falsely " Old English ofercræft "fraud." In some of its uses, moreover, over is a movable element, which can be prefixed at will to almost any verb or adjective of suitable sense, as freely as an adjective can be placed before a substantive or an adverb before an adjective. Over and its Germanic relations were widely used as prefixes, and sometimes could be used with negative force. Word-forming element meaning variously "above highest across higher in power or authority too much above normal outer beyond in time, too long," from Old English ofer (from PIE root *uper "over").
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