[Xmca-l] Re: Fun &Games

[Robert Lake]

It is interesting (and fun) to look up word origins in the OED.
which reveals a significant cultural/historically shaped evolution.
See below.
*Robert*

*Oxford English Dictionary*

*Etymology:*  probably < fun *v.*
<http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/75468#eid3558958>



†*1.* A cheat or trick; a hoax, a practical joke.

1699   B. E. *New Dict. Canting Crew*   *Fun*, a Cheat or slippery Trick.

1719   in T. D'Urfey *Wit & Mirth* V. 259   A Hackney Coachman he did buy
her, And was not this a very good Fun.



 *2.*



 *a.* Diversion, amusement, sport; also, boisterous jocularity or gaiety,
drollery. Also, a source or cause of amusement or pleasure.(Johnson 1755
stigmatizes it as ‘a low cant word’; in present use it is merely somewhat
familiar.)

1727   Swift *Misc. Epit. By-words*   Tho' he talk'd much of virtue, his
head always run Upon something or other she found better fun.

1749   H. Fielding *Tom Jones* III. ix. vi. 354   Partridge..was a great
Lover of what is called Fun.

1751   E. Moore *Gil Blas* Prol. sig. A3,   Don't mind me tho'— For all my
Fun and Jokes.

1767   H. Brooke *Fool of Quality* I. 99   Vindex..looked smilingly about
him with much fun in his face.

*a*1774   A. Tucker *Light of Nature Pursued* (1777) III. iii. 10   It is
fun to them to break off an ornament, or disfigure a statue.

1790   R. Burns *Tam o' Shanter* in *Poems & Songs* (1968) II. 561   The
mirth and fun grew fast and furious.

1836   Dickens *Pickwick Papers* (1837) ii. 7   ‘What's the fun?’ said a
rather tall thin young man.

1845   S. C. Hall *Bk. Gems* 90   His wit and humour delightful, when it
does not degenerate into ‘fun’.

1849   E. E. Napier *Excursions Southern Afr.* II. 331   Being better
mounted than the rest of his troop, [he] pushed on to see more of the fun.

1887   M. Shearman *Athletics & Football* 325   Most footballers play for
the fun and the fun alone.

1889   J. K. Jerome *Idle Thoughts* 42   There is no fun in doing nothing
when you have nothing to do.

1891   S. Baring-Gould *In Troubadour-land* iv. 50,   I do not see the fun
of going to hotels of the first class.

1934   *Punch* 9 May 526/1   A Rector in an unapostolic fury is rather fun.

1954   *Economist* 20 Mar.   His book has all the charm of science fiction;
it is enormous fun.

1958   *Listener* 25 Dec. 1085/1   The clothes were Jacobean, and fun to
wear.

*(Hide quotations)*
<http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/75467?rskey=SpD3uz&result=1&isAdvanced=false>





 *b.* Phr. *to make fun of* , *poke fun at* (a person, etc.): to
ridicule. *for or in
fun* : as a joke, sportively, not seriously. *(he, it is) good, great fun* :
a source of much amusement. *like fun*: energetically, very quickly,
vigorously. *what fun!* how very amusing! *for the fun of the thing*: for
amusement; *to have fun (with)* : to enjoy (a process); *spec.* to have
sexual intercourse.

1737   H. Walpole *Corr.* (1820) I. 17,   I can't help making fun of myself.

1826   M. M. Sherwood *Lady of Manor* (ed. 2) IV. xxi. 247   Then you won't
make fun of me, will you?

1834   S. Smith *Sel. Lett. Major Jack Downing* ix. 24   They put their
hats on and began to laugh like fun.

1840   T. Hood *Up Rhine* 145   The American..in a dry way began to ‘poke
his fun’ at the unfortunate traveller.

1848   J. R. Lowell *Biglow Papers* 1st Ser. iv. 98   Stickin' together
like fun.

1848   E. C. Gaskell *Mary Barton* I. v. 73   Carsons' mill is blazing away
like fun.

1849   E. Bulwer-Lytton *Caxtons* I. i. iv. 29   You would be very sorry if
your mamma was to..break it for fun.

1857   T. Hughes *Tom Brown's School Days* ii. iii. 273   The bolts went to
like fun.

1860   T. P. Thompson *Audi Alteram Partem* III. cxxvi. 82   Who knows but
Volunteer Rifles may make a campaign in the Holy Land, and mount guard over
the production of the holy fire at Easter? ‘What fun!’

1871   B. Jowett tr. Plato *Dialogues* I. 145   He may pretend in fun that
he has a bad memory.

1876   M. M. Grant *Sun-maid* I. iii. 104   The races are great fun.

1877   *Independent* 19 July 15/2   Little Tad commissioned lieutenant by
Stanton, ‘just for the fun of the thing’.

1891   N. Gould *Double Event* 1   He's such good fun, and he's so obliging.

1893   J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley *Slang* III. 86/2   *To have* (or *do*) *a
bit of fun*, to procure or enjoy the sexual favour.

1895   H. A. Kennedy in *19th Cent.* Aug. 331,   I suppose the wood-carver
was poking fun at him?

1903   M. Beerbohm *Around Theatres* (1924) I. 425   Amateur mimes..go in
for private theatricals..just for the fun of the thing.

1958   *Times Lit. Suppl.* 7 Feb. 73/4   The clerks..get their own back by
unmasking frauds and..having fun with the low standard of French commercial
honesty.

1961   M. Dickens *Heart of London* ii. 198   Ambrosia had pushed Edgar and
the girl in there with the admonition to have some fun, dears.

*(Hide quotations)*
<http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/75467?rskey=SpD3uz&result=1&isAdvanced=false>






 *c.* Exciting goings-on. Also *fun and games*, freq. used ironically;
*spec.* amatory play. *colloq.*

1879   W. J. Barry *Up & Down* vii. 51   We..had a good passage to
Hong-Kong. When we arrived, the first Chinese war with Britain had broken
out, and there was every appearance of plenty of fun to be shortly had with
the Chinkies.

1897   *Daily News* 13 Sept. 7/1   The engineer officers who are engaged in
carrying out some of the Sirdar's plans get much more than their fair share
of ‘the fun’.

1898   *Westm. Gaz.* 28 Oct. 3/1   It is possible that there may be rare
fun by-and-by on the Nile.

1920   ‘Sapper’ *Bull-dog Drummond* vi. 155   We've had lots of fun and
games since I last saw you.

1940   N. Mitford *Pigeon Pie* iii. 66   Farther on, however, you come to
jolly fun and games—great notices.

1948   E. Partridge *Dict. Forces' Slang* 78   *Fun and games*, any sort of
brush with the enemy at sea.

1948   ‘N. Shute’ *No Highway* iii. 70   ‘Fun and games,’ he said. ‘The
boffin's going mad.’

1952   E. Grierson *Reputation for Song* xxix. 260   Beneath the orderly
conduct of her bar there was always present the possibility of ‘fun and
games’.

1954   C. Armstrong *Better to eat You* ii. 22   If it happened because
somebody is having fun-and-games with Miss Sarah Shepherd, somebody is
going to be sorry.

1966   J. Porter *Sour Cream* v. 59,   I headed the car in the direction of
the coast road. We had the usual fun and games with the local drivers.

1970   *Globe & Mail (Toronto) *26 Sept. B3/3   Mr. Brown also expects the
fun and games of tax haven subsidiaries to disappear with the new
legislation.



On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 10:17 AM, Andrew Babson <ababson@umich.edu> wrote:

> Mike, first as an aside, I tried to post this earlier and it got rejected,
> so, updating my contact info now. A sign I should get more active here?
>
> Thanks for the great question, which is relevant to an approach
> I am developing for analyzing interactional choices of young people. On
> another level of analysis, we can think of the wide range of ideologies of
> life course stages, specifically how certain kinds of play and fun are
> expected of accepted at certain ages; and also how those ideologies are
> different and similar culturally and historically.
>
> For what I'm working on the first interactional level is more relevant
> to class, culture and education and the latter about youth and culture
> across the lifespan. The twain do meet in that we often think of
> experimentation, dynamism, flexibility and freedom when we think of play
> and also when we think of youth, whether referring to childhood or young
> adulthood.
>
> It's not a big step to consider where "fun" might fit in this conversation.
> As an LSE anthro grad I can't also help but think of the relation of this
> conversation to Maurice Bloch's work in Madagascar on the constitution of
> the body and how it is expected to change through and after life, namely as
> we get older we get bonier and therefore closer to the ancestors who are
> physically only bone. It's interesting to think of how far we can or should
> carry these analogic ideological constructions---the young spirit like
> cartilage and the old spirit like bone---and how they relate to the above!
>
> Andrew
>
> ---------------
>
> Andrew Babson, Ph.D.
> Lecturer
> Graduate School of Education
> University of Pennsylvania
>
>
>
>
> On Monday, August 17, 2015, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:
>
> > I have been led to wonder -- what is the relationship between having fun
> > and playing.  How do they differ? Does their relationship, if they are
> not
> > reducible one to the other, change over the course of development? Odd
> how
> > the category of fun is absent from developmental discourse.
> > Mike
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an
> > object that creates history. Ernst Boesch
> >
>
>
> --
> sent from my phone
>



-- 
Robert Lake  Ed.D.
Associate Professor
Social Foundations of Education
Dept. of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
Georgia Southern University
Secretary/Treasurer-AERA- Paulo Freire Special Interest Group
P. O. Box 8144
Phone: (912) 478-0355
Fax: (912) 478-5382
Statesboro, GA  30460
*He not busy being born is busy dying.*
Bob Dylan (1964).